Generating bursts of femtosecond laser pulses with a tunable delay and envelope in a folded Michelson interferometer

Bursts of 16 femtosecond laser pulses are generated in a fourfold Michelson interferometer with a tunable delay and envelope. Solutions are given to solve the "forward problem" (bursts from a given parameter set) and "inverse problem" (obtain parameter set from a given burst). Three types of bursts are generated experimentally with envelopes suitable for applications in laser materials processing and the generation of terahertz radiation.