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arXiv · 2210.11619

Few-cycle pulse generation by double-stage hybrid multi-pass multi-plate nonlinear pulse compression

Anne-Lise Viotti·Chen Li·Gunnar Arisholm·Lutz Winkelmann·Ingmar Hartl·Christoph M. Heyl·Marcus Seidel
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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. Here, we demonstrate a notably compact setup which turns a 0.1 GW peak power, picosecond 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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Anne-Lise Viotti, Chen Li, Gunnar Arisholm, Lutz Winkelmann, Ingmar Hartl, Christoph M. Heyl, Marcus Seidel. 2022-10-20. Few-cycle pulse generation by double-stage hybrid multi-pass multi-plate nonlinear pulse compression. https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.478790

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