Generation of Intense Sub-10 fs Pulses at 385 nm

We demonstrated the generation and characterization of 9.7 fs, 180 J pulses centered at 385 nm via the frequency doubling of few-cycle near-infrared pulses. Both moderate conversion efficiency(9.5%) and broad phase matching bandwidth(20 nm) were achieved by shaping the spectra of the fundamental pulses. The strong intensity dependence of second-order harmonic generation and well controlled material dispersion ensured the inexistence of satellite pulses, which was confirmed by the self-diffraction frequency resolved optical gating measurement.