Limitations in ionization-induced compression of femtosecond laser pulses due to spatio-temporal couplings

Beaurepaire, Benoit; Guénot, Diego; Vernier, Aline; Böhle, Frederik; Perrier, Maxime; Jullien, Aurélie; López-Martens, Rodrigo; Lifschitz, Agustín; Faure, Jérôme

doi:10.1364/oe.24.009693

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This important idea is illustrated via a sketch in figure 7, where the rastering of the device can resolve the more nuanced fluctuations in pulse length, but not the pulse-front tilt. Of course this may already be a useful amount of information, for example in pulse broadening in a plasma [92,93], but it is not a complete measurement. Furthermore, in practice the rastering process is itself limited due to the large number of measurements necessary to have a high resolution, especially if the measurement is performed on both transverse dimensions.…”

Section: Spatially-resolved Spectral Measurement Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal characterization of ultrashort laser beams: a tutorial

Jolly

Gobert

Quéré

2020

J. Opt.

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The temporal characterization of ultrafast laser pulses has become a cornerstone capability of ultrafast optics laboratories and is routine both for optimizing laser pulse duration and designing custom fields. Beyond pure temporal characterization, spatio-temporal characterization provides a more complete measurement of the spatially-varying temporal properties of a laser pulse. These so-called spatio-temporal couplings (STCs) are generally nonseparable chromatic aberrations that can be induced by very common optical elements—for example, diffraction gratings and thick lenses or prisms made from dispersive material. In this tutorial we introduce STCs and a detailed understanding of their behavior in order to have a background knowledge, but also to inform the design of characterization devices. We then overview a broad range of spatio-temporal characterization techniques with a view to mention most techniques, but also to provide greater details on a few chosen methods. The goal is to provide a reference and a comparison of various techniques for newcomers to the field. Lastly, we discuss nuances of analysis and visualization of spatio-temporal data, which is an often underappreciated and non-trivial part of ultrafast pulse characterization.

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Section: Spatially-resolved Spectral Measurement Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal characterization of ultrashort laser beams: a tutorial

Jolly

Gobert

Quéré

2020

J. Opt.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This important idea is illustrated via a sketch in Figure 7, where the rastering of the device can resolve the more nuanced fluctuations in pulse length, but not the pulse-front tilt. Of course this may already be a useful amount of information, for example in pulse broadening in a plasma [71,72], but it is not a complete measurement. Furthermore, in practice the rastering process is itself limited due to the large number of measurements necessary to have a high resolution, especially if the measurement is performed on both transverse dimensions.…”

Section: Spatially-resolved Spectral Measurement Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal characterization of ultrashort laser beams: a tutorial

Jolly,

Gobert,

Quéré

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The temporal characterization of ultrafast laser pulses has become a cornerstone capability of ultrafast optics laboratories and is routine both for optimizing laser pulse duration and designing custom fields. Beyond pure temporal characterization, spatio-temporal characterization provides a more complete measurement of the spatially-varying temporal properties of a laser pulse. These so-called spatio-temporal couplings (STCs) are generally nonseparable chromatic aberrations that can be induced by very common optical elementsfor example diffraction gratings and thick lenses or prisms made from dispersive material. In this tutorial we introduce STCs and a detailed understanding of their behavior in order to have a background knowledge, but also to inform the design of characterization devices. We then overview a broad range of spatio-temporal characterization techniques with a view to mention most techniques, but also to provide greater details on a few chosen methods. The goal is to provide a reference and a comparison of various techniques for newcomers to the field. Lastly, we discuss nuances of analysis and visualization of spatio-temporal data, which is an often underappreciated and non-trivial part of ultrafast pulse characterization.

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Simulation study for the spectral broadening and compression of a sub-TW laser pulse to a few-cycle duration in a dense gas target

et al. 2022

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Spectral broadening and compression of a sub-terawatt (TW) laser pulse can be achieved by tightly focusing the pulse into a thin, dense gas target; in this way, the excited plasma wave drives self-phase modulation in the pulse and causes a coupled spatial-temporal evolution of field envelope. Through three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, selected focal positions of incident pulse, gas species, and target peak densities are assigned to investigate the performance of pulse compression. When a 0.25-TW, 40-fs, 810-nm pulse is incident into a hydrogen target with a 120-μm wide Gaussian density profile and a peak density of 8×1019 cm−3, a shortest output duration of ≈ 20 fs is acquired when the pulse is focused to a size of 4 μm with a position 50 μm before the density peak. Under the same rest of parameters, using a nitrogen target inhibits the pulse compression due to undesired ionization-induced defocusing. Moreover, using a high peak density of 1.2×1020 cm−3 for hydrogen target allows the 0.25-TW pulse to be self-focused to a high intensity capable of exciting a strong plasma wave, which, in turn, modulates and compresses the pulse to ≈7 fs, along with a significantly broadened spectral bandwidth ≈200 nm. This widely expanded spectrum supports a transform-limited pulse duration ≈2.8 fs and allows the output pulse to reach a TW-level peak power when appropriate post-compression is applied.

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Limitations in ionization-induced compression of femtosecond laser pulses due to spatio-temporal couplings

Cited by 7 publications

References 29 publications

Spatio-temporal characterization of ultrashort laser beams: a tutorial

Spatio-temporal characterization of ultrashort laser beams: a tutorial

Spatio-temporal characterization of ultrashort laser beams: a tutorial

Simulation study for the spectral broadening and compression of a sub-TW laser pulse to a few-cycle duration in a dense gas target

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