Characteristics and applications of spatiotemporally focused femtosecond laser pulses

Simultaneous spatial and temporal focusing (SSTF) of femtosecond laser pulses gives rise to strong suppression of nonlinear self-focusing during the propagation of the femtosecond laser beam. In this paper, we begin with an introduction of the principle of SSTF, followed by a review of our recent experimental results on the characterization and application of the spatiotemporally focused pulses for femtosecond laser micromachining. Finally, we summarize all of the results and give a future perspective of this technique.