Nonlinear femtosecond pulse compression at high average power levels by use of a large-mode-area holey fiber

Südmeyer, Thomas; Brunner, F.; Innerhofer, E.; Paschotta, R.; Furusawa, Kentaro; Baggett, J.C.; Monro, Tanya M.; Richardson, David J.; Keller, U.

doi:10.1364/ol.28.001951

Cited by 132 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Therefore, external pulse compression of TDLs was applied based on different techniques such as passive spectral broadening using self-phase modulation (SPM) [9], active spectral broadening in fiber amplifiers [10], and compression in gas-filled hollow core fibers [11]. Although impressive performance has been reached with these systems, they usually suffer from a reduced temporal quality of the pulses and an increased complexity compared to a simple SESAM modelocked laser oscillator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sub-100 femtosecond pulses from a SESAM modelocked thin disk laser

et al. 2012

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We present the first passively modelocked thin disk laser (TDL) with sub-100-fs pulse duration using the broadband sesquioxide gain material Yb:LuScO 3 and an optimized SEmiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror (SESAM). In this proof-of-principle experiment, we obtained 5.1 W of average power at a repetition rate of 77.5 MHz and a pulse duration of 96 fs. We carefully explored and optimized the different parameters on the soliton pulse formation process for the generation of short pulses. In particular, SESAMs combining fast recovery time, high modulation depth and low nonsaturable losses proved crucial to achieve this result even though they are expected to only play a minor role in soliton modelocking. To our knowledge, these are the shortest pulses ever obtained with a modelocked TDL, reaching for the first time the sub-100-fs milestone. This result opens the door to sub-100-fs oscillators with substantially higher power levels in the near future.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sub-100 femtosecond pulses from a SESAM modelocked thin disk laser

et al. 2012

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“…Efficiently driving such highly nonlinear processes requires short pulses durations (<100 fs). Modelocked TDLs were typically limited to pulse durations >200 fs [10] and required pulse compression schemes to reach the sub-100 fs regime [11][12][13]. Most recently, we have demonstrated for the first time sub-100 fs pulses directly from a modelocked TDL using the mixed sesquioxide material Yb:LuScO 3 [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-referenceable frequency comb from an ultrafast thin disk laser

Saraceno¹,

Pekarek²,

Heckl³

et al. 2012

Opt. Express

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Abstract:We present the first measurement of the carrier envelope offset (CEO) frequency of an ultrafast thin disk laser (TDL). The TDL used for this proof-of-principle experiment was based on the gain material Yb:Lu 2 O 3 and delivered 7 W of average power in 142-fs pulses, which is more than two times shorter than previously realized with this material. Using only 65 mW of the output of the laser, we generated a coherent octave-spanning supercontinuum (SC) in a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (PCF). We detected the CEO beat signal using a standard f-to-2f interferometer, achieving a signal-to-noise ratio of >25 dB (3 kHz resolution bandwidth). The CEO frequency was tunable with the pump current with a slope of 33 kHz/mA. This result opens the door towards high-power frequency combs from unamplified oscillators. Furthermore, it confirms the suitability of these sources for future intralaser extreme nonlinear optics experiments such as high harmonic generation and VUV frequency comb generation from compact sources. 435-453 (1996). 16-18 (1995). 33. R. Paschotta and U. Keller, "Passive mode locking with slow saturable absorbers," Appl. Phys. B 73(7), 653-662 (2001). 34. C. R. E. Baer, O. H. Heckl, C. J. Saraceno, C. Schriber, C. Kränkel, T. Südmeyer, and U. Keller, "Frontiers in passively mode-locked high-power thin disk laser oscillators," Opt. Express 20(7), 7054-7065 (2012). 35. V. Magni, "Multielement stable resonators containing a variable lens," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 4(10), 1962-1969 (1987). 36. C. Hönninger, R. Paschotta, F. Morier-Genoud, M. Moser, and U. Keller, "Q-switching stability limits of continuous-wave passive mode locking," J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 16(1), 46-56 (1999

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“…The resulting table-top multimegahertz VUV/XUV sources with high photon flux would have a strong impact in fields as diverse as medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, and material science. Currently, high-field experiments with Yb:YAG thin disk lasers require external pulse compression [13,14]. Reducing the pulse duration by employing new thin disk gain materials with larger bandwidths is a promising alternative towards lower complexity of the laser system and therefore more compact table-top sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-power ultrafast thin disk laser oscillators and their potential for sub-100-femtosecond pulse generation

et al. 2009

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Ultrafast thin disk laser oscillators achieve the highest average output powers and pulse energies of any mode-locked laser oscillator technology. The thin disk concept avoids thermal problems occurring in conventional high-power rod or slab lasers and enables high-power TEM 00 operation with broadband gain materials. Stable and self-starting passive pulse formation is achieved with semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs). The key components of ultrafast thin disk lasers, such as gain material, SESAM, and dispersive cavity mirrors, are all used in reflection. This is an advantage for the generation of ultrashort pulses with excellent temporal, spectral, and spatial properties because the pulses are not affected by large nonlinearities in the oscillator. Output powers close to 100 W and pulse energies above 10 µJ are directly obtained without any additional amplification, which makes these lasers interesting for a growing number of industrial and scientific applications such as material processing or driving experiments in high-field science. Ultrafast thin disk lasers are based on a power-scalable concept, and substantially higher power levels appear feasible. However, both the highest power levels and pulse energies are currently only achieved with Yb:YAG as the gain material, which limits the gain bandwidth and therefore the achievable pulse duration to 700 to 800 fs in It is important to evaluate their suitability for power scaling in the thin disk laser geometry. In this paper, we review the development of ultrafast thin disk lasers with shorter pulse durations. We discuss the requirements on the gain materials and compare different Yb-doped host materials. The recently developed sesquioxide materials are particularly promising as they enabled the highest optical-tooptical efficiency (43%) and shortest pulse duration (227 fs) ever achieved with a mode-locked thin disk laser.

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Nonlinear femtosecond pulse compression at high average power levels by use of a large-mode-area holey fiber

Cited by 132 publications

References 14 publications

Sub-100 femtosecond pulses from a SESAM modelocked thin disk laser

Sub-100 femtosecond pulses from a SESAM modelocked thin disk laser

Self-referenceable frequency comb from an ultrafast thin disk laser

High-power ultrafast thin disk laser oscillators and their potential for sub-100-femtosecond pulse generation

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