Intra-oscillator high harmonic generation in a thin-disk laser operating in the 100-fs regime

Fischer, Julian; Drs, Jakub; Labaye, François; Modsching, Norbert; Wittwer, Valentin J.; Südmeyer, Thomas

doi:10.1364/oe.414444

Cited by 30 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…[66,67] Another very important potential of TDL oscillators is driving nonlinear processes at extremely high intensities directly inside the laser cavity such as intraoscillator HHG. [68][69][70] In Section 6 we provide a quick overview of these application areas for sub-100-fs TDLs.…”

Section: Doi: 101002/lpor202200258mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Decade of Sub‐100‐fs Thin‐Disk Laser Oscillators

Drs

Fischer

Modsching

et al. 2023

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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Thin‐disk lasers (TDLs) are best known for their high‐power continuous‐wave industrial applications. Nonetheless, the thin‐disk geometry is also highly attractive for ultrafast laser oscillators. The short propagation distance and large beam diameter inside the gain crystal allows for very low induced nonlinearity, low dispersion, and extreme peak powers inside the laser cavity. The path toward TDL oscillators directly delivering high average power at ultrafast pulse duration required for many scientific applications has, however, been tangled and is still ongoing. A decade ago, the first sub‐100‐fs laser oscillator is demonstrated, initiating the pursuit of even shorter pulses. Since then, many gain materials have been investigated in the thin‐disk geometry as well as various mode‐locking mechanisms for their suitability for efficient short‐pulse operation. In this review, the fast‐evolving development trends of TDL oscillators, as well as their scientific applications and prospects will be discussed.

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Section: Doi: 101002/lpor202200258mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Decade of Sub‐100‐fs Thin‐Disk Laser Oscillators

Drs

Fischer

Modsching

et al. 2023

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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“…Power levels of several hundred watts and peak powers of more than 40 MW have been delivered directly from mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillators [26][27][28][29]. Recently, Fischer et al realized 105 fs pulses from a Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator with intracavity average power of 470 W, which was used for intra-oscillator high harmonic generation [30]. They further obtained 69 W pulses with pulse duration of 84 fs by adopting a regime of strong self-phase modulation (SPM) in the Yb:YAG thin-disk laser [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distributed Kerr Lens Mode-Locked Yb:YAG Thin-Disk Oscillator

et al. 2022

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Ultrafast laser oscillators are indispensable tools for diverse applications in scientific research and industry. When the phases of the longitudinal laser cavity modes are locked, pulses as short as a few femtoseconds can be generated. As most high-power oscillators are based on narrow-bandwidth materials, the achievable duration for high-power output is usually limited. Here, we present a distributed Kerr lens mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator which generates sub-50 fs pulses with spectral widths far broader than the emission bandwidth of the gain medium at full width at half maximum. Simulations were also carried out, indicating good qualitative agreement with the experimental results. Our proof-of-concept study shows that this new mode-locking technique is pulse energy and average power scalable and applicable to other types of gain media, which may lead to new records in the generation of ultrashort pulses.

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“…The high average power from the laser oscillator has been also harnessed by single-cavity dual-comb systems [64,65]. Another very important potential of TDL oscillators is driving nonlinear processes at extremely high intensities directly inside the laser cavity such as intra-oscillator HHG [66][67][68]. In section 6 we provide a quick overview on those application areas for sub-100-fs TDLs.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intra-oscillator HHG yielded an XUV flux of 47 nW at 21 eV generated in argon. The next intra-oscillator HHG system was published in 2021 [68]. The KLM TDL used Yb:YAG gain material and operated at 365 MW with 105 fs pulse duration at 11 MHz.…”

Section: Intra-oscillator High Harmonic Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It can be noticed that even much higher performance has been achieved by these lasers when not driving HHG. This can be attributed to the plasma effects inside the HHG gas target which typically limit the laser performance [68]. Without HHG, intra-cavity peak powers as high as 1.7 GW at 600 fs pulse duration [25] as well as 1.2 GW at 52 fs [53] have been shown, also at substantial output power of 150 W and 100 W, respectively, pushing the frontier of the whole TDL oscillator domain.…”

Section: Intra-oscillator High Harmonic Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Think-disk lasers and their applications for nonlinear frequency conversion toward THz and XUV

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This thesis is devoted to the development of ultrafast thin-disk lasers (TDL) oscillators and their use for intra-oscillator high-harmonic generation (HHG). The main motivation was to develop a simple and compact source of coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light. Conventionally, coherent XUV radiation can be found in large scale synchrotron or free-electron laser facilities. Laser driven HHG systems have long strived to become a lab-scale alternative to these sources. The major challenge has been the low conversion efficiency of the HHG process and the high demands on the driving laser. With the advancing laser technology, this situation is rapidly improving and several state-of-the-art HHG systems can nowadays reach an XUV flux which is in certain aspects comparable to synchrotrons. The intra-laser-oscillator HHG approach is inspired by femtosecond enhancement cavities. Driving HHG inside an enhancement cavity allows for recycling the unconverted pulse energy, while increasing the available power by the cavity enhancement factor. An enhancement cavity, however, requires coherent coupling of the femtosecond pulses into the cavity which is a demanding task. The intra-oscillator HHG approach offers a simplified concept using directly the cavity of the laser instead of an external enhancement cavity. To achieve sufficiently high driving power for efficient intra-oscillator HHG, the existing TDL technology had to be significantly improved and optimized for intracavity performance. Within the scope of this thesis, a strong focus was placed on the development of the driving laser and significant progress has been achieved. To this purpose, we investigated and demonstrated Kerr lens modelocked TDL oscillators based on the gain material Yb:YAG, which achieved several records in terms of their output performance. Using our system we have demonstrated the shortest pulse duration of any TDL oscillator of 27 fs, as well as the highest average power in the sub-100-fs regime of 100 W and the highest peak power of 100 MW. The corresponding increase of intracavity performance of our laser allowed us to significantly improve the HHG operation in terms of the generated XUV flux and photon energies. Starting from 0.5 nW generated at 13 eV demonstrated five years ago, we have improved the XUV flux to 10 μW at 30 eV at the current state. Although this is not yet the highest performance among other HHG systems, the flux value is becoming competitive to the results of enhancement cavities operating at similar photon energy. The improved output performance of the demonstrated TDLs is also highly attractive for nonlinear conversion toward longer wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. A part of this thesis is, thus, dedicated to terahertz generation. We have demonstrated the first TDL driven terahertz generation in 2018, through optical rectification in GaP. Later, we used the tunability and the high average power of our self-built TDL oscillator to experimentally investigate in detail the properties of optical rectification in GaP driven by 1- μm high-power Yb-based lasers. Finally, having the experience from intra-oscillator HHG, we have shown that the high-power driving laser can be replaced by driving the THz generation directly inside the cavity of a small KLM bulk laser oscillator.

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Intra-oscillator high harmonic generation in a thin-disk laser operating in the 100-fs regime

Cited by 30 publications

References 30 publications

A Decade of Sub‐100‐fs Thin‐Disk Laser Oscillators

A Decade of Sub‐100‐fs Thin‐Disk Laser Oscillators

Distributed Kerr Lens Mode-Locked Yb:YAG Thin-Disk Oscillator

Think-disk lasers and their applications for nonlinear frequency conversion toward THz and XUV

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