Single-stage few-cycle nonlinear compression of milliJoule energy Ti:Sa femtosecond pulses in a multipass cell

Abstract

We report on the nonlinear temporal compression of mJ energy pulses from a Ti:Sa chirped pulse amplifier system in a multipass cell filled with argon. The pulses are compressed from 30 fs down to 5.3 fs, corresponding to two optical cycles. The post-compressed beam exhibits excellent spatial quality and homogeneity. These results provide guidelines for optimizing the compressed pulse quality and further scaling of multipass-cell-based post-compression down to the single-cycle regime.

Further Development of the Short‐Pulse Petawatt Laser: Trends, Technologies, and Bottlenecks

“…The postcompression in a multiple‐pass cell including a bulk plate or filled gas recently has been well studied for scaling pulse energy and accordingly peak‐ and average powers. [ 55–64 ] Figure 4c schematically shows that an input pulse is trapped in the Herriott cell for increasing its total propagation (interaction) length in a bulk plate (placed at foci) or filled gas. In this case, the B ‐integral, accordingly the self‐phase‐modulation‐induced spectrum broadening, increases with increasing the nonlinear propagating length, and after dispersion compensation, the output pulse can be compressed by 10 times.…”

“…obtained millijoule‐level sixfold (30/5.3 fs) pulse compression also in a gas‐filled multiple‐pass cell. [ 62 ] One can find more progresses about this method in recent two review articles. [ 63,64 ]…”

“…[51][52][53][54] The postcompression in a multiple-pass cell including a bulk plate or filled gas recently has been well studied for scaling pulse energy and accordingly peak-and average powers. [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] Figure 4c schematically shows that an input pulse is trapped in the Herriott cell for increasing its total propagation (interaction) length in a bulk plate (placed at foci) or filled gas. In this case, the B-integral, accordingly the self-phase-modulation-induced [39] Copyright 1997, The Optical Society.…”

“…[60] For the case with Ti:sapphire pump lasers, Figure 4d shows that in 2021, Rueda et al demonstrated millijoule-level, fivefold spectrum broadening and fivefold (42/8 fs) pulse compression in a gas-filled multiple-pass cell, [61] and in the same year Daniault et al obtained millijoulelevel sixfold (30/5.3 fs) pulse compression also in a gas-filled multiple-pass cell. [62] One can find more progresses about this method in recent two review articles. [63,64] Apart from hollow-core fibers and multiple-pass cells, photonics crystal fibers (hollow core or solid core) have also been widely used for spectrum broadening and pulse compression.…”

High power, high repetition rate laser-based sources for attosecond science

“…These results are interesting in the context of extending MPC for the post-compression of high average power, high repetition rate OPCPAs with pulse energies in the same range. Shortly after, Daniault et al demonstrated the compression of 30 fs, 1 mJ pulses from a Ti:Sapphire CPA down to 5.2 fs [106], extending implementation of MPC compression of Ti:Sapphire CPAs to the mJ energy range. A recent review about nonlinear pulse compression in MPCs can be found in [107].…”