HARMONIC FREQUENCY COMB COVERING THE MID-INFRARED MOLECULAR FINGERPRINT REGION

\begin{wrapfigure}{l}{0pt} \includegraphics[scale=0.25]{frequency_comb_28_02.eps} \end{wrapfigure} We present a multi-channel harmonic frequency comb covering the mid-infrared spectral range between 15 and 85 THz (or 3.5 - 20 $\mu$m, or 500 to 2860 cm$^{-1}$) with a record 1-mW$/$THz-level power spectral density. An Er-fiber-based oscillator is wavelength-shifted to a central wavelength of 1960 nm and a chirped-pulse Tm-fiber amplifier provides a 50-MHz-repetition-rate train of 250-fs pulses with 120 W of average power. Nonlinear self-compression in two fused-silica fibers results in two channels, yielding 11-fs pulses with 4.5 W (Channel 1) and 25-fs pulses with 25 W (Channel 2). Subsequent intrapulse difference-frequency generation (DFG) in 1-mm-thin GaSe crystals results in a coverage of the entire molecular fingerprint region with only two phase matching angles for each channel (see Figure). DFG inherently provides phase-stable pulses, leading to a harmonic frequency comb. The 120-W average power of the near-infrared frontend suffices for the parallel implementation of multiple channels, facilitating broadband spectroscopy

A concept for multiterawatt fibre lasers based on coherent pulse stacking in passive cavities

Since the advent of femtosecond lasers, performance improvements have constantly impacted on existing applications and enabled novel applications. However, one performance feature bearing the potential of a quantum leap for high-field applications is still not available: the simultaneous emission of extremely high peak and average powers. Emerging applications such as laser particle acceleration require exactly this performance regime and, therefore, challenge laser technology at large. On the one hand, canonical bulk systems can provide pulse peak powers in the multi-terawatt to petawatt range, while on the other hand, advanced solid-state-laser concepts such as the thin disk, slab or fibre are well known for their high efficiency and their ability to emit high average powers in the kilowatt range with excellent beam quality. In this contribution, a compact laser system capable of simultaneously providing high peak and average powers with high wall-plug efficiency is proposed and analysed. The concept is based on the temporal coherent combination (pulse stacking) of a pulse train emitted from a high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser system in a passive enhancement cavity. Thus, the pulse energy is increased at the cost of the repetition rate while almost preserving the average power. The concept relies on a fast switching element for dumping the enhanced pulse out of the cavity. The switch constitutes the key challenge of our proposal. Addressing this challenge could, for the first time, allow the highly efficient dumping of joule-class pulses at megawatt average power levels and lead to unprecedented laser parameters

Suppression of individual peaks in two-colour high harmonic generation

This work investigates the suppression of individual harmonics, simultaneously affecting specific even and odd orders in the high-harmonic spectra generated by strongly tailored, two-colour, multi-cycle laser pulses in neon. The resulting spectra are systematically studied as a function of the electric-field shape in a symmetry-broken ($\omega$-$2\omega$) and symmetry-preserved ($\omega$-$3\omega$) configuration. The peak suppression is reproduced by macroscopic strong-field approximation calculations and is found to be unique to symmetry-broken fields ($\omega$-$2\omega$). Additionally, semi-classical calculations further corroborate the observation and reveal their underlying mechanism, where a nontrivial spectral interference between subsequent asymmetric half-cycles is found to be responsible for the suppression

Cumulative plasma effects in cavity-enhanced high-order harmonic generation in gases

Modern ultrafast laser architectures enable high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in gases at (multi-) MHz repetition rates, where each atom interacts with multiple pulses before leaving the HHG volume. This raises the question of cumulative plasma effects on the nonlinear conversion. Utilizing a femtosecond enhancement cavity with HHG in argon and on-axis geometric extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) output coupling, we experimentally compare the single-pulse case with a double-pulse HHG regime in which each gas atom is hit by two pulses while traversing the interaction volume. By varying the pulse repetition rate (18.4 and 36.8 MHz) in an 18.4-MHz roundtrip-frequency cavity with a finesse of 187, and leaving all other pulse parameters identical (35-fs, 0.6-mu J input pulses), we observe a dramatic decrease in the overall conversion efficiency (output-coupled power divided by the input power) in the double-pulse regime. The plateau harmonics (25-50 eV) exhibit very similar flux despite the twofold difference in repetition rate and average power. We attribute this to a spatially inhomogeneous plasma distribution that reduces the HHG volume, decreasing the generated XUV flux and/or affecting the spatial XUV beam profile, which reduces the efficiency of output coupling through the pierced mirror. These findings demonstrate the importance of cumulative plasma effects for power scaling of high-repetition-rate HHG in general and for applications in XUV frequency comb spectroscopy and in attosecond metrology in particular

In-line synthesis of multi-octave phase-stable infrared light

Parametric downconversion driven by modern, high-power sources of 10-fs-scale near-infrared pulses, in particular intrapulse difference-frequency generation (IPDFG), affords combinations of properties desirable for molecular vibrational spectroscopy in the mid-infrared range: broad spectral coverage, high brilliance, and spatial and temporal coherence. Yet, unifying these in a robust and compact radiation source has remained a key challenge. Here, we address this need by employing IPDFG in a multi-crystal in-line geometry, driven by the 100-W-level, 10.6-fs pulses of a 10.6-MHz-repetition-rate, nonlinearly post-compressed Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator. Polarization tailoring of the driving pulses using a bichromatic waveplate is followed by a sequence of two crystals, LiIO3 and LiGaS2, resulting in the simultaneous coverage of the 800-cm-1-to-3000-cm-1 spectral range (at -30-dB intensity) with 130 mW of average power. We demonstrate that optical-phase coherence is maintained in this in-line geometry, in theory and experiment, the latter employing ultra-broadband electro-optic sampling. These results pave the way toward coherent spectroscopy schemes like field-resolved and frequency-comb spectroscopy, as well as nonlinear, ultrafast spectroscopy and optical-waveform synthesis across the entire infrared molecular fingerprint region

Sidelobe Suppression Using the SVA Method for SAR Images and Sounding Radars

The method of Spatially Variant Apodization (SVA) has been developed for eliminating and suppressing sidelobes in SAR images as far as possible while maintaining the original image resolution. In this paper, we investigate the applicability of SVA to E-SAR data acquired in standard side-looking geometry and for the first time to the nadir looking sounder mode. In contrast to usual SAR imagery, sounding radar data feature a very strong backscatter from nadir due to directly downlooking rather than slant-looking. The strong nadir echo corresponds to the air-ice interface directly below the aircraft. It causes accordingly severe sidelobes interfering neighboring pixels in the data such that snow or ice layers close to the surface usually cannot be detected. The paper describes the SVA implementation into SAR processing and concludes that SVA is capable to achieve a better image resolution in both kind of data, usual SAR imagery and sounding radar data, reducing the sidelobe level at the same time

HARMONIC FREQUENCY COMB COVERING THE MID-INFRARED MOLECULAR FINGERPRINT REGION

\begin{wrapfigure}{l}{0pt} \includegraphics[scale=0.25]{frequency_comb_28_02.eps} \end{wrapfigure} We present a multi-channel harmonic frequency comb covering the mid-infrared spectral range between 15 and 85 THz (or 3.5 - 20 $\mu$m, or 500 to 2860 cm$^{-1}$) with a record 1-mW$/$THz-level power spectral density. An Er-fiber-based oscillator is wavelength-shifted to a central wavelength of 1960 nm and a chirped-pulse Tm-fiber amplifier provides a 50-MHz-repetition-rate train of 250-fs pulses with 120 W of average power. Nonlinear self-compression in two fused-silica fibers results in two channels, yielding 11-fs pulses with 4.5 W (Channel 1) and 25-fs pulses with 25 W (Channel 2). Subsequent intrapulse difference-frequency generation (DFG) in 1-mm-thin GaSe crystals results in a coverage of the entire molecular fingerprint region with only two phase matching angles for each channel (see Figure). DFG inherently provides phase-stable pulses, leading to a harmonic frequency comb. The 120-W average power of the near-infrared frontend suffices for the parallel implementation of multiple channels, facilitating broadband spectroscopy