supercontinuum generation in a solid-state medium was investigated experimentally. a continuum covering 460 to 950 nm was obtained when 0.8 mj/30 fs ti: sapphire laser pulses were applied to seven thin fused silica plates at a 1 khz repetition rate. the primary processes responsible for spectral broadening were self-phase modulation (spm) and self-steepening, while spm and self-focusing were balanced to optimize the spectral broadening and suppress the multi-photon process. the output was compressed to a 5.4 fs and a 0.68 mj pulse, corresponding to two optical cycles and 0.13 tw of peak power. (c) 2017 optical society of america