Ultrafast fiber lasers for strong‐field physics experiments

Abstract

The recent demonstration of rare-earth-doped fiber lasers with a continuous-wave output power approaching the 10-kW level with diffraction-limited beam quality proves that fiber lasers constitute a scalable solid-state laser concept in terms of average power. In order to generate high peak power pulses from a fiber several fundamental limitations have to be overcome. This can be achieved by novel experimental strategies and fiber designs that offer an enormous potential towards ultrafast laser systems combining high average powers (> kW) and high peak power (> GW). In this paper the challenges, achievements and perspectives of ultrashort pulse generation and amplification in fibers are reviewed. This kind of laser system will have a tremendous impact on strong-field physics experiments, such as the generation of coherent light by high-harmonic generation. So far, applications in the interesting EUV spectral range suffer from the very low photon count leading to nonrelevant integration times with highly sophisticated detection schemes. High repetition rate high average power fiber lasers can potentially solve this issue. First demonstrations of high repetition-rate strong-field physics experiments using novel fiber laser systems will be discussed

Ultrafast nonlinear optics in gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers [Invited]

“…The fact that the same tunable UV emission dynamics can be achieved with both ∼100 nJ and ∼10 μJ pulses, with similar efficiencies, promises wide applicability of this technique. Energies of >100 nJ are available from high-repetition-rate chirped oscillators [84] and ultrafast fiber lasers [85], enabling highly compact UV sources operating at repetition rates suitable for creating deep-UV frequency combs-with numerous applications in spectroscopy. Alternatively, the use of the ∼10 μJ pumped system should enable the generation of deep-UV pulses with energies in excess of 1 μJ.…”

Flexible pulse-controlled fiber laser

“…Fiber-based lasers attract extensive attention due to their various advantages such as compactness, reliability, and high stability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 . A variety of mode-locking techniques have been developed to make pulse lasers as versatile tools for many applications in fiber telecommunication, optical frequency comb generation, metrology, and microscopy 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 .…”

Ultrafast Laser Direct Writing in Glass: Thermal Accumulation Engineering and Applications

“…[46] Figure 3. a) Temperature distribution at various radial positions from the laser focus simulated using Equation (3). The parameters are ΔT m = 1000 K, w th = 1.1 μm, l z = 9.0 μm, and D th = 0.46 μm, repetition rate = 250 kHz.…”

“…The development of generation of ultrashort laser pulses with the duration from femtosecond (fs) to few picoseconds has made the ultrafast laser systems commercially available with widely acceptable cost. [1][2][3][4][5] This opens up the possibility for many researchers to conduct extensive researches on light-matter interaction with ultrahigh irradiance. The interaction between ultrafast lasermatter has demonstrated unparalleled capabilities to induce various amazing phenomena and modifications in the transparent solids.…”