Review of Multi-Frequency Raman Generation

To keep pushing the boundaries of ultrafast spectroscopy, high power optical pulses with sub-femtosecond durations must be synthesized. Although pulses with attosecond durations have been generated, the peak power remains low, and the spectral range is in the XUV. The technique of multi-frequency Raman generation shows promise as a simple method to generate visible or UV pulses with single femtosecond duration and sufficient power to drive nonlinear optical processes. In this paper, I review the progress made generating broad spectra by multi-frequency Raman generation and compressing the resulting electric field to generate high power, single femtosecond pulses.