Long-term stabilization of the carrier-envelope phase of few-cycle laser pulses

Self Cite

140

105

One of the most advanced frontiers of ultrafast optics is the control of carrier-envelope phase (CEP) φ of light pulses, which enables the generation of optical waveforms with reproducible electric field profile. Such control is important for pulses with few-optical-cycle duration, for which a CEP variation produces a strong change in the waveform, so that strongly nonlinear optical phenomena, such as multiphoton absorption, above-threshold ionization and high-harmonic generation become CEP-dependent. In particular, CEP control is the prerequisite for the production of isolated attosecond pulses. Standard laser systems generate pulses that are CEP unstable; the CEP can be stabilized using either active or passive methods. Passive, all-optical schemes rely on differencefrequency generation (DFG) between two pulses sharing the same CEP: in this process the phases of the two pulses add up with opposite signs, leading to cancellation of the shot-to-shot CEP fluctuations. This paper presents an overview of passive CEP stabilization schemes, starting from the basic concepts and progressing to the details of the practical implementations of the idea. The passive approach allows the generation of CEP-controlled few-optical-cycle pulses covering a very broad range of parameters in terms of carrier frequency (from visible to mid-IR), energy (up to several mJs) and repetition rate (up to hundreds of kHz).

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Few‐optical‐cycle light pulses with passive carrier‐envelope phase stabilization

Cerullo

Baltuška

Mücke

et al. 2010

Self Cite

140

105

“…This has been achieved experimentally, and it can be used to lock the CEP against slow drifts [52,53,55,60,61]. While the low-energy portion of the ATI spectrum contains some CEPdependent asymmetry, there is a much larger asymmetry in the final directions of electrons that scatter elastically off their parent ions.…”

Section: This Transition Is Illustrated Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classical and quantum control of electrons using the carrier‐envelope phase of strong laser fields

Abel

Neumark

Leone

et al. 2011

Electrons are among the lightest quantum particles in nature, yet they are of paramount importance in any kind of chemical reaction as they are the essence of molecular bonds. For several years, laser fields have been used towards the fi- nal goal of controlling chemical reaction dynamics. While early experiments focused mainly on the control of the internuclear wavefunction of rather heavy molecules, advances in short- pulse laser technology now allow the control of lighter molecules all the way down to hydrogen and even the direct control of electrons and their quantum wavefunctions. In this context, the stabilization and control of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of laser pulses has been one of the crucial technological advances that set off a revolution in ultrafast laser science. The authors review and summarize some of the past and current experimen- tal achievements and theoretical ideas on CEP laser control of electrons. It will become clear that in some cases, depending on the control scenario, electrons can be considered to behave as classical particles and the control of their trajectories follow the laws of classical Newtonian mechanics while in other cases, the quantum nature of electrons is directly exploited to steer electron dynamics by means of quantum interference

“…It was determined that the CPA process only caused a small, slow drift of the CE phase, which could be precompensated using the oscillator CE-phase locking servo [48][49][50]. However, the early CE-phase stable amplifiers used glass blocks in the stretchers and prisms in the compressors.…”

Section: Ce-phase Stabilization and Control Of Amplified Laser Pulsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in carrier‐envelope phase stabilization of grating‐based chirped‐pulse amplifiers

Moon

Wang

Gilbertson

et al. 2010

Grating-based chirped pulse amplifiers are the cornerstone of high-power femtosecond lasers. The amplification of carrier-envelope phase stable pulses in such lasers has only been realized within the last few years. Currently, the stateof-the-art in this endeavor is utilizing the change in grating separation in the stretcher or compressor. The carrier-envelope phase drift can be reduced to the 160 mrad RMS level and the carrier-envelope phase can be swept in a 2π range. The effects of laser pulse energy stability on the f -to-2f measurement of the carrier-envelope phase were found to be significant, with a 1% change in laser energy leading to 160 mrad phase error, showing the need for power-stable amplified laser systems. The phase-stabilized pulses from grating-based chirped amplifiers have been successfully used in attosecond pulse generation with subcycle gating techniques.When a laser pulse propagates through a pair of diffraction gratings, its carrier-envelope phase depends strong on the separation of gratings. This effect has been used to stabilize the carrier-envelope phase in chirped pulse laser amplifiers.161 Figure 1 (online color at: www.lpr-journal.org) A few-cycle laser pulse showing the carrier-envelope offset, ϕCE.