Study of dispersions for the prism compressor in arbitrary case

A prism compressor can compensate dispersion of femtosecond light pulses traveling in air for laser ranging. A general precise expression is acquired for the optical path length through a four-prism sequence in a special way. We improved the optical path calculating method to acquire the accurate expression of the group delay dispersion (GDD) of the prism compressor in arbitrary case, which apply to arbitrary incident angle and incident point conveniently. Influences of five parameters on GDD are simulated and analyzed for four kinds of material, respectively. The results demonstrate that, when experimental conditions change, GDD vary correspondingly, even from positive to negative, which are convenient to dispersion compensation of ultrashort laser pulses. When the incident angle and the apex angle of the prism are unsuitably selected, total reflection will occur in the prism, which should be avoided in application.