30, 20, and 10 Years Ago in OPN

“In the past three years, just a decade after the discovery of the first practical femtosecond lasers, there has been a series of dramatic advances in ultrashort-pulse laser technology. Femtosecond lasers today are easier to use, less expensive, and routinely generate pulses with an order of magnitude more power and several times shorter pulse width than in 1990 … New developments promise to further extend the tuning range, pulse width, and power, and hence the applicability of the new technology. These advances promise to make the 1990s an exciting time for the field of ultrafast phenomena.”