Subrelativistic Alternating Phase Focusing Dielectric Laser Accelerators.

We demonstrate a silicon-based electron accelerator that uses laser optical near fields to both accelerate and confine electrons over extended distances. Two dielectric laser accelerator (DLA) designs were tested, each consisting of two arrays of silicon pillars pumped symmetrically by pulse front tilted laser beams, designed for average acceleration gradients 35 and 50 MeV/m, respectively. The DLAs are designed to act as alternating phase focusing (APF) lattices, where electrons, depending on the electron-laser interaction phase, will alternate between opposing longitudinal and transverse focusing and defocusing forces. By incorporating fractional period drift sections that alter the synchronous phase between ±60° off crest, electrons captured in the designed acceleration bucket experience half the peak gradient as average gradient while also experiencing strong confinement forces that enable long interaction lengths. We demonstrate APF accelerators with interaction lengths up to 708 µm and energy gains up to 23.7±1.07 keV FWHM, a 25% increase from starting energy, demonstrating the ability to achieve substantial energy gains with subrelativistic DLA.

Electron Pulse Compression with Optical Beat Note.

Compressing electron pulses is important in many applications of electron beam systems. In this study, we propose to use optical beat notes to compress electron pulses. The beat frequency is chosen to match the initial electron pulse duration, which enables the compression of electron pulses with a wide range of durations. This functionality extends the optical control of electron beams, which is important in compact electron beam systems such as dielectric laser accelerators. We also find that the dominant frequency of the electron charge density changes continuously along its drift trajectory, which may open up new opportunities in coherent interaction between free electrons and quantum or classical systems.

Low-loss GaOx-core/SiO2-cladding planar waveguides on Si substrate.

The unique properties of gallium oxide (GaOx) have drawn increasing interest as a material suitable for high-power electronic and optical applications. Herein, we report the demonstration of low-loss GaOx-core/SiO2-cladding waveguides on Si substrate. We present the fabrication process and annealing treatments of the waveguide devices, and we characterize the corresponding effects on optical transmission for 3 common wavelengths: 633 nm, 1064 nm, and 1550 nm. The best propagation loss achieved for these wavelengths is measured to be -0.4±0.1dB/cm, -0.3±0.2dB/cm, and -2.4±0.5dB/cm, respectively. We discuss the major waveguide loss mechanisms, followed by results of pump and probe experiments using visible/IR wavelengths for waveguides treated under various post-fabrication annealing conditions. We also show nonlinear measurements for a 250 fs laser beam to offer additional insights into the loss mechanisms, which are consistent with the linear optical transmission performances. High waveguide laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of >2.5J/cm2 is measured at this pulse width, making GaOx a potential candidate for high-power integrated photonic devices.

Silicon nitride waveguide as a power delivery component for on-chip dielectric laser accelerators.

We study the weakly guided silicon nitride waveguide as an on-chip power delivery solution for dielectric laser accelerators (DLAs). We focus on the two main limiting factors on the waveguide network for DLAs: the optical damage and nonlinear characteristics. The typical delivered fluence at the onset of optical damage is measured to be ∼0.19 J/cm2 at a 2 µm central wavelength and 250 fs pulse width. This damage fluence is lower than that of the bulk Si3N4 (∼0.65 J/cm2), but higher than that of bulk silicon (∼0.17 J/cm2). We also report the nonlinearity-induced spectrum and phase variance of the output pulse at this pulse duration. We find that a total waveguide length within 3 mm is sufficient to avoid significant self-phase modulation effects when operating slightly below the damage threshold. We also estimate that one SiNx waveguide can power 70 µm silicon dual pillar DLAs from a single side, based on the results from the recent free-space DLA experiment.

Laser-Driven Electron Lensing in Silicon Microstructures.

We demonstrate a laser-driven, tunable electron lens fabricated in monolithic silicon. The lens consists of an array of silicon pillars pumped symmetrically by two 300 fs, 1.95 µm wavelength, nJ-class laser pulses from an optical parametric amplifier. The optical near field of the pillar structure focuses electrons in the plane perpendicular to the pillar axes. With 100±10 MV/m incident laser fields, the lens focal length is measured to be 50±4 µm, which corresponds to an equivalent quadrupole focusing gradient B^{'} of 1.4±0.1 MT/m. By varying the incident laser field strength, the lens can be tuned from a 21±2 µm focal length (B^{'}>3.3 MT/m) to focal lengths on the centimeter scale.

Net Acceleration and Direct Measurement of Attosecond Electron Pulses in a Silicon Dielectric Laser Accelerator.

Net acceleration of attosecond-scale electron pulses is critical to the development of on-chip accelerators. We demonstrate a silicon-based laser-driven two-stage accelerator as an injector stage prototype for a Dielectric Laser Accelerator (DLA). The first stage converts a 57-keV (500±100)-fs (FWHM) electron pulse into a pulse train of 700±200 as (FWHM) microbunches. The second stage harnesses the tunability of dual-drive DLA to perform both a net acceleration and a streaking measurement. In the acceleration mode, the second stage increases the net energy of the electron pulse by 200 eV over 12.25 µm. In the deflection mode, the microbunch temporal profile is analyzed by a direct streaking measurement with 200 as resolution. This work provides a demonstration of a novel, on-chip method to access the attosecond regime, opening new paths towards attosecond science using DLA.

Efficient half-harmonic generation of three-optical-cycle mid-IR frequency comb around 4 µm using OP-GaP.

We report a broadband mid-infrared frequency comb with three-optical-cycle pulse duration centered around 4.2 µm, via half-harmonic generation using orientation-patterned GaP (OP-GaP) with ~43% conversion efficiency. We experimentally compare performance of GaP with GaAs and lithium niobate as the nonlinear element, and show how properties of GaP at this wavelength lead to generation of the shortest pulses and the highest conversion efficiency. These results shed new light on half-harmonic generation of frequency combs, and pave the way for generation of short-pulse intrinsically-locked frequency combs at longer wavelengths in the mid-infrared with high conversion efficiencies.

Design of a tapered slot waveguide dielectric laser accelerator for sub-relativistic electrons.

We propose a dielectric laser accelerator design based on a tapered slot waveguide structure for sub-relativistic electron acceleration. This tapering scheme allows for straightforward tuning of the phase velocity of the accelerating field along the propagation direction, which is necessary for maintaining synchronization with electrons as their velocities increase. Furthermore, the non-resonant nature of this design allows for better tolerance to experimental errors. We also introduce a method to design this continuously tapered structure based on the eikonal approximation, and give a working example based on realistic experimental parameters.

Phase-dependent laser acceleration of electrons with symmetrically driven silicon dual pillar gratings.

We present the demonstration of phase-dependent laser acceleration and deflection of electrons using a symmetrically driven silicon dual pillar grating structure. We show that exciting an evanescent inverse Smith-Purcell mode on each side of a dual pillar grating can produce hyperbolic cosine acceleration and hyperbolic sine deflection modes, depending on the relative excitation phase of each side. Our devices accelerate sub-relativistic 99.0 keV kinetic energy electrons by 3.0 keV over a 15 µm distance with accelerating gradients of 200 MeV/m with 40 nJ, 300 fs, 1940 nm pulses from an optical parametric amplifier. These results represent a significant step towards making practical dielectric laser accelerators for ultrafast, medical, and high-energy applications.

Temporal Simultons in Optical Parametric Oscillators.

We report the first demonstration of a regime of operation in optical parametric oscillators (OPOs), in which the formation of temporal simultons produces stable femtosecond half-harmonic pulses. Simultons are simultaneous bright-dark solitons of a signal field at frequency ω and the pump field at 2ω, which form in a quadratic nonlinear medium. The formation of simultons in an OPO is due to the interplay of nonlinear pulse acceleration with the timing mismatch between the pump repetition period and the cold-cavity round-trip time and is evidenced by sech^{2} spectra with broad instantaneous bandwidths when the resonator is detuned to a slightly longer round-trip time than the pump repetition period. We provide a theoretical description of an OPO operating in a regime dominated by these dynamics, observe the distinct features of simulton formation in an experiment, and verify our results with numerical simulations. These results represent a new regime of operation in nonlinear resonators, which can lead to efficient and scalable sources of few-cycle frequency combs at arbitrary wavelengths.

Simple, picojoule-sensitive ultraviolet autocorrelator based on two-photon conductivity in sapphire.

We present a simple autocorrelator for ultraviolet pulses based on two-photon conductivity in a bench-top fabricatable sapphire sensor. We perform measurements on femtosecond 226-278 nm ultraviolet pulses from the third and fourth harmonics of a standard 76 MHz titanium sapphire oscillator and picosecond 266 nm pulses from the fourth harmonic of a 1064 nm 50 MHz neodymium vanadate oscillator. Our device is sensitive to 2.6 pJ ultraviolet pulses with peak powers below 20 W. These results represent the lowest measured autocorrelation peak powers by over one order of magnitude for a system with no reference pulse in the deep ultraviolet (<300 nm). The autocorrelator can potentially support UV pulse lengths from 50 fs-10s of picoseconds.

Transverse and longitudinal characterization of electron beams using interaction with optical near-fields.

We demonstrate an experimental technique for both transverse and longitudinal characterization of bunched femtosecond free electron beams. The operation principle is based on monitoring of the current of electrons that obtained an energy gain during the interaction with the synchronized optical near-field wave excited by femtosecond laser pulses. The synchronous accelerating/decelerating fields confined to the surface of a silicon nanostructure are characterized using a highly focused sub-relativistic electron beam. Here the transverse spatial resolution of 450 nm and femtosecond temporal resolution of 480 fs (sub-optical-cycle temporal regime is briefly discussed) achievable by this technique are demonstrated.

Demonstration of acceleration of relativistic electrons at a dielectric microstructure using femtosecond laser pulses.

Acceleration of electrons using laser-driven dielectric microstructures is a promising technology for the miniaturization of particle accelerators. Achieving the desired GV m-1 accelerating gradients is possible only with laser pulse durations shorter than ∼1 ps. In this Letter, we present, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of acceleration of relativistic electrons at a dielectric microstructure driven by femtosecond duration laser pulses. Using this technique, an electron accelerating gradient of 690±100 MV m-1 was measured-a record for dielectric laser accelerators.

Fiber-feedback optical parametric oscillator for half-harmonic generation of sub-100-fs frequency combs around 2 µm.

We demonstrate a femtosecond fiber-feedback optical parametric oscillator (OPO) at degeneracy. The OPO cavity comprises an 80-cm-long fiber composed of a combination of normal and anomalous dispersion sections that provide a net intracavity group delay dispersion close to zero. By using a mode-locked, Yb-doped fiber laser as the pump, we achieved half-harmonic generation of 250-MHz, 1.2-nJ nearly transform-limited 97-fs pulses centered at 2090 nm with a total conversion efficiency of 36%.

Dielectric laser acceleration of sub-100 keV electrons with silicon dual-pillar grating structures.

We present the demonstration of high-gradient laser acceleration and deflection of electrons with silicon dual-pillar grating structures using both evanescent inverse Smith-Purcell modes and coupled modes. Our devices accelerate subrelativistic 86.5 and 96.3 keV electrons by 2.05 keV over 5.6 µm distance for accelerating gradients of 370 MeV/m with a 3 nJ mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. We also show that dual pillars can produce uniform accelerating gradients with a coupled-mode field profile. These results represent a significant step toward making practical dielectric laser accelerators for ultrafast, medical, and high-energy applications.

Fractional-length sync-pumped degenerate optical parametric oscillator for 500-MHz 3-µm mid-infrared frequency comb generation.

We demonstrate a mid-IR frequency comb centered at 3120 nm with 650-nm (20-THz) bandwidth at a comb-teeth spacing of 500 MHz. The generated comb is based on a compact ring-type synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (SPOPO) operating at degeneracy and pumped by a mode-locked Er-doped 1560 nm fiber laser at a repetition rate of 100 MHz. We achieve high-repetition rate by using a fractional-length cavity with a roundtrip length of 60 cm, which is one-fifth of the length dictated by conventional synchronous pumping.

Electron beam position monitor for a dielectric microaccelerator.

We report the fabrication and first demonstration of an electron beam position monitor for a dielectric microaccelerator. This device is fabricated on a fused silica substrate using standard optical lithography techniques and uses the radiated optical wavelength to measure the electron beam position with a resolution of 10 µm, or 7% of the electron beam spot size. This device also measures the electron beam spot size in one dimension.

Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in in situ tapered As2S3 fiber pumped by a thulium-doped fiber laser.

We report a supercontinuum spanning well over an octave of measurable bandwidth from about 1 to 3.7 µm in a 2.1 mm long As2S3 fiber taper using the in situ tapering method. A sub-100-fs mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser system with ~300 pJ of pulse energy was used as the pump source. Third-harmonic generation was observed and currently limits the pump pulse energy and achievable spectral bandwidth.

All-optical quantum random bit generation from intrinsically binary phase of parametric oscillators.

We demonstrate a novel all-optical quantum random number generator (RNG) based on above-threshold binary phase state selection in a degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO). Photodetection is not a part of the random process, and no post processing is required for the generated bit sequence. We show that the outcome is statistically random with 99% confidence, and verify that the randomness is due to the phase of initiating photons generated through spontaneous parametric down conversion of the pump, with negligible contribution of classical noise sources. With the use of micro- and nanoscale OPO resonators, this technique offers a promise for simple, robust, and high-speed on-chip all-optical quantum RNGs.

Coherence properties of a broadband femtosecond mid-IR optical parametric oscillator operating at degeneracy.

We study coherence properties of a χ(²) optical parametric oscillator (OPO), which produces 2/3-octave-wide spectrum centered at the subharmonic (3120 nm) of the femtosecond pump laser. Our method consists of interfering the outputs of two identical, but independent OPOs pumped by the same laser. We demonstrate that the two OPOs show stable spatial and temporal interference and are mutually locked in frequency and in phase. By observing a collective heterodyne beat signal between the two OPOs we show that one can deterministically choose, by cavity length adjustment, between the two frequency states corresponding to the two sets of modes shifted with respect to each other by half of the laser pulse repetition rate. Moreover, we observe that the existence of two opposite phase states, a known common feature of a parametrically driven n = 2 subharmonic oscillator, reveals itself in our experiment as a common phase, 0 or π, being established through the whole set of some 300 thousand longitudinal modes.