We demonstrate direct three-dimensional (3-D) microfabrication inside a volume of silica glass. The whole fabrication process was carried out in two steps:(i) writing of the preprogrammed 3-D pattern inside silica glass by focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulses and (ii) etching of the written structure in a 5% aqueous solution of HF acid. This technique allows fabrication of 3-D channels as small as 10mum in diameter inside the volume with any angle of interconnection and a high aspect ratio (10mum -diameter channels in a 100mum -thick silica slab).
We report on a high-power fiber frequency comb exhibiting linear chirped-pulse amplification up to 80 W and generating 120 fs pulses. By proper matching of the group delay between the fiber stretcher and compressor, a compression ratio of 3100 could be achieved. Carrier envelope offset self-referencing and long-term phase locking to an rf reference is demonstrated, exemplifying the suitability of this system for generating vacuum and extreme-UV frequency combs via enhancement in passive cavities and high harmonic generation.
We report on an electron accelerator based on few-cycle (8 fs full width at half maximum) laser pulses, with only 40 mJ energy per pulse, which constitutes a previously unexplored parameter range in laser-driven electron acceleration. The produced electron spectra are monoenergetic in the tens-of-MeV range and virtually free of low-energy electrons with thermal spectrum. The electron beam has a typical divergence of 5-10 mrad. The accelerator is routinely operated at 10 Hz and constitutes a promising source for several applications. Scalability of the few-cycle driver in repetition rate and energy implies that the present work also represents a step towards user friendly laser-based accelerators.
We demonstrate a novel approach to femtosecond microfabrication of transparent dielectrics, which employs nondiffracting Bessel beams instead of the conventionally used Gaussian beams. The main advantage of Bessel beams is the possibility of recording linear photomodified tracks, extending along the lines of nondiffractive beam propagation without sample translation, as would be required for Gaussian beams. Recording of patterns with an aspect ratio of up to 102–103 in vitreous silica using amplified femtosecond Ti:saphire laser pulses is demonstrated.
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