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arXiv · 2212.00909

Atmospheric dispersion management in the mid-IR mode-locked oscillators

Evgeni Sorokin·Alexander Rudenkov·Vladimir Kalashnikov·Irina Sorokina
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Abstract

The atmospheric dispersion in the mid-infrared transparency windows presents and important albeit frequently neglected factor when developing ultra-short pulsed lasers. We show that it can amount to hundreds of fs^2 in 2-3 micron window with typical laser round-trip path lengths. Using the Cr:ZnS ultrashort-pulsed laser as a test-bed, we demonstrate the atmospheric dispersion influence on a femtosecond and chirped-pulse oscillator performance and show that the humidity fluctuations can be compensated by active dispersion control, greatly improving stability of mid-IR few-optical cycle laser sources. The approach can be readily extended to any ultrafast source in the mid-IR transparency windows.

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Evgeni Sorokin, Alexander Rudenkov, Vladimir Kalashnikov, Irina Sorokina. 2022-12-01. Atmospheric dispersion management in the mid-IR mode-locked oscillators. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.488683

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