Editing Kerr-lens modelocking (section)

== Applications ==
Since '''Kerr-lens modelocking''' is an effect that directly reacts on the electric field, the response time is fast enough to produce light pulses in the visible and near infrared with lengths of less than 5 [[femtosecond]]s. Due to the high electrical field strength focused ultrashort laser beams can overcome the threshold of 10<sup>14</sup> W cm<sup>−2</sup>, which surpasses the field strength of the electron-ion bond in atoms.

These short pulses open the new field of [[ultrafast optics]], which is a field of [[nonlinear optics]] that gives access to a completely new class of phenomena like measurement of electron movements in an atom (attosecond phenomena), coherent broadband light generation ([[ultrabroad laser]]s) and thereby gives rise to many new applications in optical sensing (e.g. coherent laser radar, ultrahigh resolution [[optical coherence tomography]]), material processing and other fields like [[metrology]] (extremely exact frequency and time measurements).