Designing of grating pulse compressors

We present a comprehensive guide on the design of in-plane grating-based pulse compressors, structured in two parts. First, different types of grating compressors are reviewed and their implementation, advantages, and disadvantages are discussed. Second, a method is proposed to systematically identify a suitable compressor design for a given application. This is achieved by classifying all conceivable compressor designs in a two-dimensional landscape from which unsuitable designs are excluded within five subsequent steps. For each of these five steps, different equations are derived to assess the suitability to a desired number of diffraction orders, the footprint, the obstruction of the beams by mechanical parts or mutual obstruction of the mechanical components themselves, the size of the gratings, and the flexibility of the design.