Carrier-envelope phase stable few-cycle laser system delivering more than 100 W, 1 mJ, sub-2-cycle pulses.

Two-stage multipass-cell compression of a fiber-chirped-pulse amplifier system to the few-cycle regime is presented. The output delivers a sub-2-cycle (5.8 fs), 107 W average power, 1.07 mJ pulses at 100 kHz centered at 1030 nm with excellent spatial beam quality (M2 = 1.1, Strehl ratio S = 0.98), pointing stability (2.3 µrad), and superior long-term average power stability of 0.1% STD over more than 8 hours. This is combined with a carrier-envelope phase stability of 360 mrad in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 50 kHz, i.e., measured on a single-shot basis. This unique system will serve as an HR1 laser for the Extreme Light Infrastructure Attosecond Light Pulse Source research facility to enable high repetition rate isolated attosecond pulse generation.

Direct compression of 170-fs 50-cycle pulses down to 1.5 cycles with 70% transmission.

We present a straightforward route for extreme pulse compression, which relies on moderately driving self-phase modulation (SPM) over an extended propagation distance. This avoids that other detrimental nonlinear mechanisms take over and deteriorate the SPM process. The long propagation is obtained by means of a hollow-core fiber (HCF), up to 6 m in length. This concept is potentially scalable to TW pulse peak powers at kW average power level. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate 33-fold pulse compression of a 1 mJ, 6 kHz, 170 fs Yb laser down to 5.1 fs (1.5 cycles at 1030 nm), by employing a single HCF and subsequent chirped mirrors with an overall transmission of 70%.

Adaptive pre-amplification pulse shaping in a high-power, coherently combined fiber laser system.

We report on the successful implementation of an adaptive pre-amplification pulse shaping technique in a high-power, coherently combined fiber laser system to achieve sub-300-fs pulse durations at 320 W average power and 3.2 mJ pulse energy. The pulse shaper is utilized to impose a gain flattening mask to increase the spectral width of the amplified pulse by 60%. Simultaneously, it pre-compensates the spectral phase acquired in the multi-stage amplification and subsequent compression including the eight-channel, coherently combined main amplification stage. This result does significantly enhance the performance of the fiber laser system and the subsequent nonlinear compression stages.

Energetic sub-2-cycle laser with 216 W average power.

Few-cycle lasers are essential for many research areas such as attosecond physics that promise to address fundamental questions in science and technology. Therefore, further advancements are connected to significant progress in the underlying laser technology. Here, two-stage nonlinear compression of a 660 W femtosecond fiber laser system is utilized to achieve unprecedented average power levels of energetic ultrashort or even few-cycle laser pulses. In a first compression step, 408 W, 320 µJ, 30 fs pulses are achieved, which can be further compressed to 216 W, 170 µJ, 6.3 fs pulses in a second compression stage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest average power few-cycle laser system presented so far. It is expected to significantly advance the fields of high harmonic generation and attosecond science.

High-repetition-rate and high-photon-flux 70 eV high-harmonic source for coincidence ion imaging of gas-phase molecules.

Unraveling and controlling chemical dynamics requires techniques to image structural changes of molecules with femtosecond temporal and picometer spatial resolution. Ultrashort-pulse x-ray free-electron lasers have significantly advanced the field by enabling advanced pump-probe schemes. There is an increasing interest in using table-top photon sources enabled by high-harmonic generation of ultrashort-pulse lasers for such studies. We present a novel high-harmonic source driven by a 100 kHz fiber laser system, which delivers 1011 photons/s in a single 1.3 eV bandwidth harmonic at 68.6 eV. The combination of record-high photon flux and high repetition rate paves the way for time-resolved studies of the dissociation dynamics of inner-shell ionized molecules in a coincidence detection scheme. First coincidence measurements on CH3I are shown and it is outlined how the anticipated advancement of fiber laser technology and improved sample delivery will, in the next step, allow pump-probe studies of ultrafast molecular dynamics with table-top XUV-photon sources. These table-top sources can provide significantly higher repetition rates than the currently operating free-electron lasers and they offer very high temporal resolution due to the intrinsically small timing jitter between pump and probe pulses.

Scalability of components for kW-level average power few-cycle lasers.

In this paper, the average power scalability of components that can be used for intense few-cycle lasers based on nonlinear compression of modern femtosecond solid-state lasers is investigated. The key components of such a setup, namely, the gas-filled waveguides, laser windows, chirped mirrors for pulse compression and low dispersion mirrors for beam collimation, focusing, and beam steering are tested under high-average-power operation using a kilowatt cw laser. We demonstrate the long-term stable transmission of kW-level average power through a hollow capillary and a Kagome-type photonic crystal fiber. In addition, we show that sapphire substrates significantly improve the average power capability of metal-coated mirrors. Ultimately, ultrabroadband dielectric mirrors show negligible heating up to 1 kW of average power. In summary, a technology for scaling of few-cycle lasers up to 1 kW of average power and beyond is presented.

High-average-power 2 µm few-cycle optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier at 100 kHz repetition rate.

Sources of long wavelengths few-cycle high repetition rate pulses are becoming increasingly important for a plethora of applications, e.g., in high-field physics. Here, we report on the realization of a tunable optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier at 100 kHz repetition rate. At a central wavelength of 2 µm, the system delivered 33 fs pulses and a 6 W average power corresponding to 60 µJ pulse energy with gigawatt-level peak powers. Idler absorption and its crystal heating is experimentally investigated for a BBO. Strategies for further power scaling to several tens of watts of average power are discussed.

Acousto-optic pulse picking scheme with carrier-frequency-to-pulse-repetition-rate synchronization.

We introduce and experimentally validate a pulse picking technique based on a travelling-wave-type acousto-optic modulator (AOM) having the AOM carrier frequency synchronized to the repetition rate of the original pulse train. As a consequence, the phase noise characteristic of the original pulse train is largely preserved, rendering this technique suitable for applications requiring carrier-envelope phase stabilization. In a proof-of-principle experiment, the 1030-nm spectral part of an 74-MHz, carrier-envelope phase stable Ti:sapphire oscillator is amplified and reduced in pulse repetition frequency by a factor of two, maintaining an unprecedentedly low carrier-envelope phase noise spectral density of below 68 mrad. Furthermore, a comparative analysis reveals that the pulse-picking-induced additional amplitude noise is minimized, when the AOM is operated under synchronicity. The proposed scheme is particularly suitable when the down-picked repetition rate is still in the multi-MHz-range, where Pockels cells cannot be applied due to piezoelectric ringing.

Impact of atmospheric molecular absorption on the temporal and spatial evolution of ultra-short optical pulses.

We present a rigorous study on the impact of atmospheric molecular absorption on the linear propagation of ultrashort pulses in the mid-infrared wavelength region. An ultrafast thulium-based fiber laser was employed to experimentally investigate ultrashort-pulse propagation through the atmosphere in a spectral region containing several strong molecular absorption lines. The atmospheric absorption profile causes a significant degradation of the pulse quality in the time domain as well as a distortion of the transverse beam profile in the spatial domain. Numerical simulations carried out in the small signal limit accurately reproduce the experimental observations in the time domain and reveal that the relative loss in peak power after propagation can be more than twice as high as the relative amount of absorbed average power. Although their nature is purely linear (i.e. the intensities considered are sufficiently low) the discussed effects represent significant challenges to performance-scaling of mid-infrared ultrafast lasers operating in spectral regions with molecular absorption bands. Guidelines for an efficient mitigation of the pulse quality degradation and the beam profile distortion are discussed.

22 GW peak-power fiber chirped-pulse-amplification system.

In this Letter, we report on a femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse-amplification system based on the coherent combination of the output of four ytterbium-doped large-pitch fibers. Each single channel delivers a peak power of about 6.2 GW after compression. The combined system emits 200 fs long pulses with a pulse energy of 5.7 mJ at 230 W of average power together with an excellent beam quality. The resulting peak power is 22 GW, which to the best of our knowledge is the highest value directly emitted from any fiber-based laser system.

53 W average power few-cycle fiber laser system generating soft x rays up to the water window.

We report on a few-cycle laser system delivering sub-8-fs pulses with 353 µJ pulse energy and 25 GW of peak power at up to 150 kHz repetition rate. The corresponding average output power is as high as 53 W, which represents the highest average power obtained from any few-cycle laser architecture so far. The combination of both high average and high peak power provides unique opportunities for applications. We demonstrate high harmonic generation up to the water window and record-high photon flux in the soft x-ray spectral region. This tabletop source of high-photon flux soft x rays will, for example, enable coherent diffractive imaging with sub-10-nm resolution in the near future.

Coherent combination of spectrally broadened femtosecond pulses for nonlinear compression.

The coherent combination of ultrashort pulses has recently been established as a technique to overcome the limitations of laser amplifiers regarding pulse peak-power, pulse energy, and average power. Similar limitations also occur in nonlinear compression setups. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we show that the techniques developed for the combination of amplifiers can be adapted to nonlinear compression. We create two spatially separated pulse replica that undergo self-phase modulation in independent optical fibers and are recombined afterwards. Using this technique we demonstrate operation above the self-focusing threshold of a single pulse. Furthermore, we prove that the recombined pulses can be temporally compressed. This experiment paves the way for higher energy or average power operation of various nonlinear compression setups.

Enhancing the macroscopic yield of narrow-band high-order harmonic generation by Fano resonances.

Resonances in the photoabsorption spectrum of the generating medium can modify the spectrum of high-order harmonics. In particular, window-type Fano resonances can reduce photoabsorption within a narrow spectral region and, consequently, lead to an enhanced emission of high-order harmonics in absorption-limited generation conditions. For high harmonic generation in argon it is shown that the 3s3p(6)np(1)P(1) window resonances (n = 4, 5, 6) give rise to enhanced photon yield. In particular, the 3s3p(6)4p(1)P(1) resonance at 26.6 eV allows a relative enhancement up to a factor of 30 in a 100 meV bandwidth compared to the characteristic photon emission of the neighboring harmonic order. This enhanced, spectrally isolated, and coherent photon emission line has a relative energy bandwidth of only ΔE/E = 3 × 10(-3). Therefore, it might be very useful for applications such as precision spectroscopy or coherent diffractive imaging. The presented mechanism can be employed for tailoring and controlling the high harmonic emission of manifold target materials.

Energy scaling of femtosecond amplifiers using actively controlled divided-pulse amplification.

Divided-pulse amplification is a promising method for the energy scaling of femtosecond laser amplifiers, where pulses are temporally split prior to amplification and coherently recombined afterwards. We present a method that uses an actively stabilized setup with separated stages for splitting and combining. The additional degrees of freedom can be employed to mitigate the limitations originating from saturation of the amplifier that cannot be compensated in passive double-pass configurations using just one common stage for pulse splitting and combining. In a first proof-of-principle experiment, actively controlled divided pulses are applied in a fiber chirped-pulse amplification system resulting in combined and compressed pulses with an energy of 1.25 mJ and a peak power of 2.9 GW.

Divided-pulse nonlinear compression.

We report on the nonlinear pulse compression of temporally divided pulses, which is presented in a proof-of-principle experiment. A single 320 fs pulse is divided into four replicas, spectrally broadened in a solid-core fiber, and subsequently recombined. This approach makes it possible to reduce the nonlinearities in the fiber and therefore to use total input peak power of about 13.3 MW, which is more than three times higher than the self-focusing threshold. Finally, the combined output pulse could be compressed to sub-100 fs pulse duration. This general and universal approach holds promise for overcoming fundamental limitations of the pulse peak power that lead to destruction of the fiber or ionization limitations in high-energy hollow-core compression.

Generation of high-photon flux-coherent soft x-ray radiation with few-cycle pulses.

We present a tabletop source of coherent soft x-ray radiation with high-photon flux. Two-cycle pulses delivered by a fiber-laser-pumped optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier operating at 180 kHz repetition rate are upconverted via high harmonic generation in neon to photon energies beyond 200 eV. A maximum photon flux of 1.3·10(8) photons/s is achieved within a 1% bandwidth at 125 eV photon energy. This corresponds to a conversion efficiency of ~10(-9), which can be reached due to a gas jet simultaneously providing a high target density and phase matching. Further scaling potential toward higher photon flux as well as higher photon energies are discussed.

Nonlinear compression to sub-30-fs, 0.5 mJ pulses at 135 W of average power.

Incorporation of coherent combination into a state-of-the-art fiber-chirped pulse amplification system obtains 1.1 mJ, 340 fs pulses with up to 280 W of average power at 250 kHz repetition rate. Propagation of this laser pulse inside a krypton-filled hollow-core fiber results in significant spectral broadening. Chirped mirrors are used to compress the pulses to 26 fs, 540 µJ (135 W) leading to a peak power of more than 11 GW. This unprecedented combination of high peak and average power ultrashort pulses opens up new possibilities in multidimensional surface science and coherent soft x-ray generation.

530 W, 1.3 mJ, four-channel coherently combined femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system.

We report on a femtosecond fiber laser system comprising four coherently combined large-pitch fibers as the main amplifier. With this system, a pulse energy of 1.3 mJ and a peak power of 1.8 GW are achieved at 400 kHz repetition rate. The corresponding average output power is as high as 530 W. Additionally, an excellent beam quality and efficiency of the combination have been obtained. To the best of our knowledge, such a parameter combination, i.e., gigawatt pulses with half a kilowatt average power, has not been demonstrated so far with any other laser architecture.

Thermal effects in high average power optical parametric amplifiers.

Optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) have the reputation of being average power scalable due to the instantaneous nature of the parametric process (zero quantum defect). This Letter reveals serious challenges originating from thermal load in the nonlinear crystal caused by absorption. We investigate these thermal effects in high average power OPAs based on beta barium borate. Absorption of both pump and idler waves is identified to contribute significantly to heating of the nonlinear crystal. A temperature increase of up to 148 K with respect to the environment is observed and mechanical tensile stress up to 40 MPa is found, indicating a high risk of crystal fracture under such conditions. By restricting the idler to a wavelength range far from absorption bands and removing the crystal coating we reduce the peak temperature and the resulting temperature gradient significantly. Guidelines for further power scaling of OPAs and other nonlinear devices are given.

Sub 25 fs pulses from solid-core nonlinear compression stage at 250 W of average power.

We report on a highpower femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system with an excellent beam quality (M(2)=1.2) operating at 250 MHz repetition rate. We demonstrate nonlinear compression in a solid-core photonic crystal fiber at unprecedented average power levels. By exploiting self-phase modulation with subsequent chirped-mirror compression we achieve pulse shortening by more than one order of magnitude to 23 fs pulses. The use of circular polarization allows higher than usual peak powers in the broadening fiber resulting in compressed 0.9 µJ pulse energy and a peak power of 34 MW at 250 W of average power (M(2)=1.3). This system is well suited for driving cavity-enhanced high-repetition rate high-harmonic generation.