Single-shot measurement of carrier-envelope phase changes by spectral interferometry

Kakehata, Masayuki; Takada, Hideyuki; Kobayashi, Yohei; Torizuka, Kenji; Fujihira, Yoshihiko; Homma, Tetsuya; Takahashi, Hideo

doi:10.1364/ol.26.001436

Cited by 214 publications

(116 citation statements)

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“…2a) was measured with two-dimensional shearing interferometry 19 (2DSI). CEP stability and control was analysed from the f-to-2f spectral beats 20 in Fig. 2b.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sub-cycle optical phase control of nanotunnelling in the single-electron regime

et al. 2016

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The high peak electric fields provided by single-cycle light pulses can be harnessed to manipulate and control charge motion in solid-state systems, resulting in electron emission out of metals and semiconductors [1][2][3][4][5][6] or high harmonics generation in dielectrics 7,8 . These processes are of a non-perturbative character and require precise reproducibility of the electric-field profile 9-14 . Here, we vary the carrier-envelope phase of 6-fs-long near-infrared pulses with pJ-level energy to control electronic transport in a laterally confined nanoantenna with an 8 nm gap. Peak current densities of 50 MA cm -2 are achieved, corresponding to the transfer of individual electrons in a half-cycle period of 2 fs. The observed behaviours are made possible by the strong distortion of the effective tunnelling barrier due to the extreme electric fields that the nanostructure provides and sustains under sub-cycle optical biasing. Operating at room temperature and in a standard atmosphere, the performed experiments demonstrate a robust class of nanoelectronic switches gated by phase-locked optical transients of minute energy content.Present-day high-frequency devices operate in the microwave range, but direct control of electron flow by the electric-field profile of few-cycle optical pulses has recently been demonstrated 12,15 . These experiments were based on strong perturbation of the electronic system in a dielectric material, resulting in a large incoherent background current. Nanoscale confinement of the region biased by the optical transient might avoid a significant influence of nonlinear conductivity in an insulating substrate and result in purely coherent tunnelling currents 16 that may be controlled by the precise shape of the electric field cycles. Our approach to reaching this goal is illustrated in the upper part of Fig. 1a. A single-cycle near-infrared pulse (left) is focused to a nanoscale junction of an electronic circuit (centre) with nonlinear and antisymmetric current-voltage (I-V) characteristics (right). An effective bias then arises when the exciting electric field is cosine-shaped (blue transient and blue dot in the I-V scheme) because its extremum occurs only for one polarity. Consequently, the symmetry of electronic transport is broken, even when integrating over the entire transient, and a net tunnelling current of electrons results through the potential barrier represented by the free-space gap (Fig. 1b,c). Our experiment favours tunnelling over other phenomena such as multiphoton ionization 4 by operating with ultrashort pulses and extreme nanoconfinement of the electric field. No background current exists when the control field is sineshaped (red transient and dot in the I-V characteristics, respectively), because positive and negative polarities now have precisely opposite effects. Consequently, the total current amplitude and direction may be set by varying the carrier-envelope phase (CEP), Δφ CEP , of the pulse. Owing to the single-cycle pulse duration, nanoscale constriction and fi...

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“…2a) was measured with two-dimensional shearing interferometry 19 (2DSI). CEP stability and control was analysed from the f-to-2f spectral beats 20 in Fig. 2b.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sub-cycle optical phase control of nanotunnelling in the single-electron regime

et al. 2016

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“…Although the f-to-2f interferometer can detect the CEP drift even with single shot [37][38][39] , it is nearly impossible to obtain the absolute value of the CEP because there are many dispersive optical components that tremendously shift the CEP in the interferometer before the detection of the CEP signal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency-resolved optical gating capable of carrier-envelope phase determination

2013

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Recent progress of the coherent light synthesis technology has brought the generation of single-cycle pulses within our reach. To exploit the full potential of such a single-cycle pulse in any applications, it is highly important to obtain the full information of its electric field. Here we propose a novel pulse characterization scheme, which enables us to determine not only the intensity and phase profiles of ultrashort pulses but also their absolute carrier-envelope phase values. The method is based on a combination of frequency-resolved optical gating and electro-optic sampling, which can be extended to a self-referencing scheme to determine the electric field evolution of few-cycle ultrashort pulses. We have experimentally demonstrated the technique to characterize sub-single-cycle infrared pulses, and numerically studied the capability of the scheme to incorporate a self-referencing technique and to extend the wavelength range to visible region.

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“…Typically the amplification is operated at a low repetition rate with large pulse energy. To evaluate and further control the CEP slip of the amplified pulses, a single-shot measurement of the spectral interference (SI) is proposed [36,37]. Phase locking is achieved by modulating the pump power of the seed oscillator through the AOM which varies the transmitted power proportional to the phase error signal generated by the phase locking electronics.…”

Section: In-loop and Out-of-loop Phase Noise Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%