Carrier-envelope phase stabilization with sub-10 as residual timing jitter

Abstract

We demonstrate carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stabilization of a mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator with unprecedented timing jitter of eight attoseconds. The stabilization performance is obtained by a combination of two different stabilization approaches. In a first step the drift of the CEP is stabilized with a conventional feedback loop by means of controlling the oscillator pump power with an acousto-optic modulator (AOM). In a second step we utilize a recently developed feed-forward type stabilization scheme which has a much higher control bandwith. Here an acousto-optic frequency shifter (AOFS) produces the stabilized output in the first diffraction order. Moreover, we present numerical results on the optimization of the length of the photonic crystal fiber, which is used to generate an octave-spanning spectrum, in order to optimize the sensitivity in the f-to-2f interferometers.

What We Can Learn about Ultrashort Pulses by Linear Optical Methods

“…Nowadays, CEP stabilization is well-established for Ti:sapphire lasers by the means of f-to-2f and 0-to-f interferometry [91,92]. Recent developments suppressed the CEP noise of the few cycle pulses in the visible-near infrared spectral range to a previously unexpected level of a few tens of mrad [93,94]. Unfortunately, a wide range of lasers cannot satisfy the necessary conditions for such nonlinear interferometries [92] i.e., octave-spanning spectrum or enough power for frequency doubling.…”

On the origin of flicker noise in carrier-envelope phase stabilization

“…Frequency combs are expected to play a key role as the clockwork of optical time standards, and may replace the current microwavebased definition of the second [1]. Over the past decade, the obtainable precision of this clockwork has substantially improved, with the residual jitter between the carrier and envelope of a pulse amounting to less than 10 attoseconds [2]. This tight lock has been enabled by the feed-forward stabilization technique [3], which also contributed to the coherent synthesis of two independent mode-locked lasers [4].…”

Carrier-Envelope-Phase Characterization for an Isolated Attosecond Pulse by Angular Streaking

“…To achieve the CEP of the IAP with the accuracy δθ IAP < 0.1π, δθ IR must be smaller than 40 milliradians. Fortunately, the CEP jitters of IR pulses in experiment can to be determined with smaller and smaller uncertainties, from 200 [41], to 60 [42,43], and even 20 milliradians [44] with developing techniques. Hence, we claim that the current laser technology in some advanced labs is ready to confirm our proposal.…”