Viotti AL, Li C, Arisholm G, Winkelmann L, Hartl I, Heyl CM, Seidel M. Few-cycle pulse generation by double-stage hybrid multi-pass multi-plate nonlinear pulse compression.
OPTICS LETTERS 2023;
48:984-987. [PMID:
36790995 DOI:
10.1364/ol.478790]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Few-cycle pulses present an essential tool to track ultrafast dynamics in matter and drive strong field effects. To address photon-hungry applications, high average power lasers are used which, however, cannot directly provide sub-100-fs pulse durations. Post-compression of laser pulses by spectral broadening and dispersion compensation is the most efficient method to overcome this limitation. We present a notably compact setup which turns a 0.1-GW peak power, picosecond burst-mode laser into a 2.9-GW peak power, 8.2-fs source. The 120-fold pulse duration shortening is accomplished in a two-stage hybrid multi-pass, multi-plate compression setup. To our knowledge, neither shorter pulses nor higher peak powers have been reported to-date from bulk multi-pass cells alone, manifesting the power of the hybrid approach. It puts, for instance, compact, cost-efficient, and high repetition rate attosecond sources within reach.
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