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- ItemMilliradian precision ultrafast pulse control for spectral phase metrology(Washington, DC : Soc., 2021) Stamm, Jacob; Benel, Jorge; Escoto, Esmerando; Steinmeyer, Günter; Dantus, MarcosA pulse-shaper-based method for spectral phase measurement and compression with milliradian precision is proposed and tested experimentally. Measurements of chirp and third-order dispersion are performed and compared to theoretical predictions. The single-digit milliradian accuracy is benchmarked by a group velocity dispersion measurement of fused silica.
- ItemSpace-time focusing and coherence properties of supercontinua in multipass cells(College Park, MD : APS, 2021) Mei, Chao; Steinmeyer, GünterThe situation of self-compression and concomitant supercontinuum generation in a multipass cell is analyzed in numerical simulations. This study focuses on multipass cells that contain a dielectric slab as nonlinear medium and overcompensate the dispersion of the slab with intracavity dispersive coatings. A 2D+1 unidirectional pulse propagation equation is utilized to simulate the pulse evolution through successive passes. We observe a previously unreported effect of space-time focusing, leading to a pronounced blue shift, similar to what had been observed in filament compression experiments before. This effect competes with detrimental pulse breakup, which can nevertheless be mitigated under suitable choice of cavity parameters. We further analyze resulting coherence properties, in both the time and frequency domains. Our analysis shows highly favorable properties of multipass cell compression schemes when nonlinearity and dispersion are distributed over as many cavity passes as possible. This quasicontinuous approach is particularly promising for spectral broadening schemes that allow for stabilization of the carrier-envelope phase.
- ItemAll-optical supercontinuum switching(London : Springer Nature, 2020) Melchert, Oliver; Brée, Carsten; Tajalli, Ayhan; Pape, Alexander; Arkhipov, Rostislav; Willms, Stephanie; Babushkin, Ihar; Skryabin, Dmitry; Steinmeyer, Günter; Morgner, Uwe; Demircan, AyhanEfficient all-optical switching is a challenging task as photons are bosons and cannot immediately interact with each other. Consequently, one has to resort to nonlinear optical interactions, with the Kerr gate being the classical example. However, the latter requires strong pulses to switch weaker ones. Numerous approaches have been investigated to overcome the resulting lack of fan-out capability of all-optical switches, most of which relied on types of resonant enhancement of light-matter interaction. Here we experimentally demonstrate a novel approach that utilizes switching between different portions of soliton fission induced supercontinua, exploiting an optical event horizon. This concept enables a high switching efficiency and contrast in a dissipation free setting. Our approach enables fan-out, does not require critical biasing, and is at least partially cascadable. Controlling complex soliton dynamics paves the way towards building all-optical logic gates with advanced functionalities. © 2020, The Author(s).
- ItemLong-term hybrid stabilization of the carrier-envelope phase(Washington, DC : Soc., 2020) Hirschman, Jack; Lemons, Randy; Chansky, Evan; Steinmeyer, Günter; Carbajo, SergioControlling the carrier envelope phase (CEP) in mode-locked lasers over practically long timescales is crucial for real-world applications in ultrafast optics and precision metrology. We present a hybrid solution that combines a feed-forward technique to stabilize the phase offset in fast timescales and a feedback technique that addresses slowly varying sources of interference and locking bandwidth limitations associated with gain media with long upper-state lifetimes. We experimentally realize the hybrid stabilization system in an Er:Yb:glass mode-locked laser and demonstrate 75 hours of stabilization with integrated phase noise of 14 mrad (1 Hz to 3 MHz), corresponding to around 11 as of carrier to envelope jitter. Additionally, we examine the impact of environmental factors, such as humidity and pressure, on the long-term stability and performance of the system. © 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
- ItemTransient pulse compression at a group velocity horizon(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2015) Babushkin, Ihar; Amiranashvili, Shalva; Brée, Carsten; Morgner, Uwe; Steinmeyer, Günter; Demircan, AyhanGroup-velocity matched cross-phase modulation between a fundamental soliton and a dispersive wave-packet has been previously suggested for optical switching applications similar to an optical transistor. Moreover, the nonlinear interaction in the resulting groupvelocity horizon can be exploited for adiabatic compression of the soliton down into the fewcycle regime. Here we show that both mechanisms can be combined. In such a transient compressor, parameters of the dispersive wave may then serve to actively control the soliton compression and adjust the pulse duration in the presence of disturbances. While a certain amount of control is already enabled by the delay between soliton and dispersive wave, the means of controlling the compression process are substantially enhanced by additionally manipulating the chirp of the dispersive wave. Moreover, controlling the chirp of the dispersive wave also enables correction for limitations of the compression scheme due to a self-frequency shift of the soliton or for uncompensated dispersion in the scheme. This substantially widens the practicality of the compression scheme and other applications of the highly efficient nonlinear interaction at the group-velocity horizon.
- ItemOcean rogue waves and their phase space dynamics in the limit of a linear interference model([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2016) Birkholz, Simon; Brée, Carsten; Veselić, Ivan; Demircan, Ayhan; Steinmeyer, GünterWe reanalyse the probability for formation of extreme waves using the simple model of linear interference of a finite number of elementary waves with fixed amplitude and random phase fluctuations. Under these model assumptions no rogue waves appear when less than 10 elementary waves interfere with each other. Above this threshold rogue wave formation becomes increasingly likely, with appearance frequencies that may even exceed long-term observations by an order of magnitude. For estimation of the effective number of interfering waves, we suggest the Grassberger-Procaccia dimensional analysis of individual time series. For the ocean system, it is further shown that the resulting phase space dimension may vary, such that the threshold for rogue wave formation is not always reached. Time series analysis as well as the appearance of particular focusing wind conditions may enable an effective forecast of such rogue-wave prone situations. In particular, extracting the dimension from ocean time series allows much more specific estimation of the rogue wave probability.
- ItemOcean rogue waves and their phase space dynamics in the limit of a linear interference model(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2016) Birkholz, Simon; Brée, Carsten; Veselic, Ivan; Demircan, Ayhan; Steinmeyer, GünterWe reanalyse the probability for formation of extreme waves using the simple model of linear interference of a finite number of elementary waves with fixed amplitude and random phase fluctuations. Under these formation becomes increasingly likely, with appearance frequencies that may even exceed long-term observations by an order of magnitude. For estimation of the effective number of interfering waves, we suggest the Grassberger-Procaccia dimensional analysis of individual time series. For the ocean system, it is further shown that the resulting phase space dimension may vary, such that the threshold for rogue wave formation is not always reached. Time series analysis as well as the appearance of particular focusing wind conditions may enable an effective forecast of such rogue-wave prone situations. In particular, extracting the dimension from ocean time series allows much more specific estimation of the rogue wave probability.
- ItemKramers-Kronig relations and high order nonlinear susceptibilities(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2011) Brée, Carsten; Demircan, Ayhan; Steinmeyer, GünterAs previous theoretical results recently revealed, a Kramers-Kronig transform of multiphoton absorption rates allows for a precise prediction on the dispersion of the nonlinear refractive index $n_2$ in the near IR. It was shown that this method allows to reproduce recent experimental results on the importance of the higher-order Kerr effect. Extending these results, the current manuscript provides the dispersion of $n_2$ for all noble gases in excellent agreement with reference data. It is furthermore established that the saturation and inversion of the nonlinear refractive index is highly dispersive with wavelength, which indicates the existence of different filamentation regimes. While shorter laser wavelengths favor the well-established plasma clamping regime, the influence of the higher-order Kerr effect dominates in the long wavelength regime.
- ItemCascaded self-compression of femtosecond pulses in filaments(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2010) Brée, Carsten; Bethge, Jens; Skupin, Stefan; Demircan, Ayhan; Steinmeyer, GünterHighly nonlinear wave propagation scenarios hold the potential to serve for energy concentration or pulse duration reduction of the input wave form, provided that a small range of input parameters be maintained. In particular when phenomena like rogue-wave formation or few-cycle optical pulses generation come into play, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain control of the waveforms. Here we suggest an alternative approach towards the control of waveforms in a highly nonlinear system. Cascading pulse self-compression cycles at reduced nonlinearity limits the increase of input parameter sensitivity while still enabling an enhanced compression effect. This cascaded method is illustrated by experiments and in numerical simulations of the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation, simulating the propagation of short optical pulses in a self-generated plasma.
- ItemFilamentary pulse self-compression : the impact of the cell windows(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2011) Brée, Carsten; Demircan, Ayhan; Bethge, Jens; Nibbering, Erik T.J.; Skupin, Stefan; Bergé, Luc; Steinmeyer, GünterSelf-compression of multi-millijoule laser pulses during filamentary propagation is usually explained by the interplay of self-focusing and defocusing effects, causing a substantial concentration of energy on the axis of the propagating optical pulse. Recently, it has been argued that cell windows may play a decisive role in the self-compression mechanism. As such windows have to be used for media other than air their presence is often unavoidable, yet they present a sudden non-adiabatic change in dispersion and nonlinearity that should lead to a destruction of the temporal and spatial integrity of the light bullets generated in the self-compression mechanism. We now experimentally prove that there is in fact a self-healing mechanism that helps to overcome the potentially destructive consequences of the cell windows. We show in two carefully conducted experiments that the cell window position decisively influences activation or inhibition of the self-healing mechanism. A comparison with a windowless cell shows that presence of this mechanism is an important prerequisite for the exploitation of self-compression effects in windowed cells filled with inert gases.