ABSTRACT
The temporal dynamics of ultrashort laser pulses undergoing filamentary propagation are investigated with a real-time stereographic above-threshold ionization (ATI) phasemeter. The experimental setup is capable of measuring the pulse duration as well as the carrier-envelope phase distribution of pulses originating from a femtosecond filament, which is either truncated in length or fully propagated. Truncation, by means of a semi-infinite gas cell, allows to elucidate the nonlinear evolution and temporal dynamics of ultrashort laser pulses as a function of the propagation length. We observe the formation of few-cycle pulses as well as temporal pulse splitting dynamics during the propagation of the pulse inside the filament. For the first time, we demonstrate the compression of 35 fs pulses down to a duration of sub-4 fs in a single femtosecond filament. This corresponds to sub-1.5 cycles of the electric field.
Subject(s)
Equipment Failure Analysis/instrumentation , Lasers , Radiometry/instrumentation , Radiation DosageABSTRACT
The third harmonic generated during femtosecond filamentation in air is studied. By establishing a gradient from atmospheric pressure to vacuum conditions, we truncate the filament abruptly at defined positions. The introduction of the pressure gradient leads to an enhancement of the generated third harmonic radiation by 3 orders of magnitude. This effect is attributed to an improved on-axis phase-matching condition. We investigate the spectral shape and the conversion efficiency of the third harmonic during the propagation in the filament.
ABSTRACT
The spectral evolution of a high-intensity light channel formed by filamentation is investigated in a detailed experimental study. We also track the spatio-temporal dynamics by high-order harmonic generation along the filament. Both the spectral and temporal diagnostics are performed as a function of propagation distance, by extracting the light pulses directly from the hot filament core into vacuum via pinholes that terminate the nonlinear propagation. We compare the measured spectral shapes to simulations and analyze numerically the temporal dynamics inside the filament.
Subject(s)
Lasers , Light , Models, Theoretical , Nonlinear Dynamics , Refractometry/methods , Scattering, Radiation , Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted , Computer SimulationABSTRACT
We report on an octave-spanning Ti:sapphire laser oscillator stabilized to carrier-envelope-offset frequency zero, generating a pulse train with constant field profile for every pulse. Stabilization is realized using an extended self-referenced locking scheme enabling to lock the carrier envelope-offset phase with less than 65 attosecond rms timing jitter. The stabilized system features a pulse repetition rate of 100 MHz with pulses as short as 4.5 fs and 220 mW average output power. With this laser system it was possible for the first time to demonstrate a spectral interference pattern of 1011 oscillator pulses in an out-of-loop f-to-2f-interferometer.
Subject(s)
Interferometry/instrumentation , Lasers , Oscillometry/instrumentation , Telecommunications/instrumentation , Computer-Aided Design , Equipment Design , Equipment Failure Analysis , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
7-fs-pulses with 0.3 mJ are obtained after filamentation in argon and compression by double-chirped-mirrors. These pulses are used to generate high-order harmonics in a semi-infinite gas cell in different noble gases. Spectral broadening of high-order harmonics in xenon and argon is observed. In neon, an extended continuous cut-off region down to 10 nm (124 eV) is observed which is to the best of our knowledge the highest cut-off energy obtained by filamented pulses. Our result suggests the feasibility of single attosecond-pulse-generation at both high photon flux and high cut-off energy.
