Generation of above-terawatt 1.5-cycle visible pulses at 1  kHz by post-compression in a hollow fiber

Abstract

We report on the generation of 6.1 mJ, 3.8 fs pulses by the compression of a kilohertz Ti:sapphire laser in a large-aperture long hollow fiber. In order to find optimal conditions for spectral broadening at high pulse energies, we explore different parameter ranges where ionization or the Kerr effect dominates. After identifying the optimum parameter settings, large spectral broadening at high waveguide transmission is obtained. The intense 1.5-cycle pulses are used for high-harmonic generation in argon and neon.

High-energy few-cycle pulses: post-compression techniques

“…The HCF technology is the only post-compression technique which reaches the high-energy few-cycle regime with above-mJ, sub-3-cycle pulses (red-shaded area in Figure 9), clearly dominating this field at present. Two of the three best results in this regime were obtained with SF-HCFs (6.1 mJ/ 3.8 fs [153] and 3.5 mJ/3.4 fs [152]) and the third with a long HCF (5 mJ/5 fs [148]). In the terawatt regime the picture is similar: here in addition to the previously mentioned works there is a preliminary result achieved with SF-HCF technology (40 mJ/25 fs [201]).…”

“…In this way well-controlled CEP-stable 3.5 fs pulses with 3.5 mJ are routinely generated [152]. Recently, an up-scaled version of the system has been commissioned at the Max Born Institute with an overall length of 8.2 m where 14 mJ 50 fs pulses are compressed to 1.5 optical cycles at 3.8 fs duration with an output energy of 6.1 mJ with a peak power of 1.2 TW [153] clearly breaking the TW barrier.…”

Near-single-cycle pulses generated through post-compression on FAB1 laser at ATTOLAB-Orme facility

“…High temporal resolution as well as high-field strengths with substantial repetition ratse (≥1 kHz to reduce acquisition time) are needed. Thus reducing the pulse duration to fewcycle pulses while keeping mJ range energies has been largely studied over the two past decades [7][8][9].…”

Few-cycle broadband mid-IR pulse generation via optical parametric down-conversion

“…Due to the limited amplification bandwidth of our OPCPA system, it cannot directly output subtwo-cycle or even single-cycle pulses which are required by some strong-field applications such as isolated attosecond pulse generation. However, the nonlinear pulse compression technique based on the nonlinear spectral broadening via SPM [100] and either subsequent [110,112] or simultaneous dispersion compensation [77,111,113] can further shorten the pulse width of such high-energy pulses with a low loss. The nonlinear media for the spectral broadening may be gases or bulk materials.…”

“…The nonlinear media for the spectral broadening may be gases or bulk materials. For example, gas-filled waveguides have been used for multi-mJ, sub-two-cycle pulse generation [110,111] and high-energy single-cycle pulse generation [77]. Direct nonlinear pulse compression in air without the use of waveguides was demonstrated for tens of mJ, 35 fs pulse generation [71].…”