Atmospheric dispersion management in mid-IR mode-locked oscillators

The atmospheric dispersion in the mid-infrared transparency windows presents an important albeit often neglected factor when developing ultrashort-pulsed lasers. We show that it can amount to hundreds of fs² in 2-3 µm window with typical laser round-trip path lengths. Using the Cr:ZnS ultrashort-pulsed laser as a test-bed, we demonstrate the atmospheric dispersion influence on femtosecond and chirped-pulse oscillator performance and show that the humidity fluctuations can be compensated by an active dispersion control, greatly improving stability of mid-IR few-optical cycle laser sources. The approach can be readily extended to any ultrafast source in the mid-IR transparency windows.