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- Item43 W, 1.55 μm and 12.5 W, 3.1 μm dual-beam, sub-10 cycle, 100 kHz optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier(Washington, DC : Soc., 2018) Mero, Mark; Heiner, Zsuzsanna; Petrov, Valentin; Rottke, Horst; Branchi, Federico; Thomas, Gabrielle M.; Vrakking, Marc J. J.We present a 100 kHz optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) developed for strong-field attosecond physics and soft-x-ray transient absorption experiments. The system relies on noncollinear potassium titanyl arsenate booster OPCPAs and is pumped by a 244 W, 1.1 ps Yb:YAG Innoslab chirped pulse laser amplifier. Two optically synchronized infrared output beams are simultaneously available: a 430 μJ, 51 fs, carrier-envelope phase stable beam at 1.55 μm and an angular-dispersion-compensated, 125 μJ, 73 fs beam at 3.1 μm.
- ItemCompact, high-repetition-rate source for broadband sum-frequency generation spectroscopy(Melville, NY : AIP Publishing, 2017) Heiner, Zsuzsanna; Petrov, Valentin; Mero, MarkWe present a high-efficiency optical parametric source for broadband vibrational sum-frequency generation (BB-VSFG) for the chemically important mid-infrared spectral range at 2800-3600 cm-1 to study hydrogen bonding interactions affecting the structural organization of biomolecules at water interfaces. The source consists of a supercontinuum-seeded, dual-beam optical parametric amplifier with two broadband infrared output beams and a chirped sum-frequency mixing stage providing narrowband visible pulses with adjustable bandwidth. Utilizing a pulse energy of only 60 μJ from a turn-key, 1.03-μm pump laser operating at a repetition rate of 100 kHz, the source delivers 6-cycle infrared pulses at 1.5 and 3.2 μm with pulse energies of 4.6 and 1.8 μJ, respectively, and narrowband pulses at 0.515 μm with a pulse energy of 5.0 μJ. The 3.2-μm pulses are passively carrier envelope phase stabilized with fluctuations at the 180-mrad level over a 10-s time period. The 1.5-μm beamline can be exploited to deliver pump pulses for time-resolved studies after suitable frequency up-conversion. The high efficiency, stability, and two orders of magnitude higher repetition rate of the source compared to typically employed systems offer great potential for providing a boost in sensitivity in BB-VSFG experiments at a reduced cost.
- ItemThin-disk laser-pumped OPCPA system delivering 4.4 TW few-cycle pulses(Washington, DC : Soc., 2020) Kretschmar, Martin; Tuemmler, Johannes; Schütte, Bernd; Hoffmann, Andreas; Senfftleben, Björn; Mero, Mark; Sauppe, Mario; Rupp, Daniela; Vrakking, Marc J.J.; Will, Ingo; Nagy, TamasWe present an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) system delivering 4.4 TW pulses centered at 810 nm with a sub-9 fs duration and a carrier-envelope phase stability of 350 mrad. The OPCPA setup pumped by sub-10 ps pulses from two Yb:YAG thin-disk lasers at 100 Hz repetition rate is optimized for a high conversion-efficiency. The terawatt pulses of the OPCPA are utilized for generating intense extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses by high-order harmonic generation, achieving XUV pulse energies approaching the microjoule level. © 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
- ItemVibrational sum-frequency generation spectroscopy of lipid bilayers at repetition rates up to 100 kHz(Melville, NY : American Institute of Physics, 2018) Yesudas, Freeda; Mero, Mark; Kneipp, Janina; Heiner, ZsuzsannaBroadband vibrational sum-frequency generation (BB-VSFG) spectroscopy has become a well-established surface analytical tool capable of identifying the orientation and structure of molecular layers. A straightforward way to boost the sensitivity of the technique could be to increase the laser repetition rate beyond that of standard BB-VSFG spectrometers, which rely on Ti:sapphire lasers operating at repetition rates of 1-5 kHz. Nevertheless, possible thermally induced artifacts in the vibrational spectra due to higher laser average powers are unexplored. Here, we discuss laser power induced temperature accumulation effects that distort the BB-VSFG spectra of 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine at an interface between two transparent phases at repetition rates of 5, 10, 50, and 100 kHz at constant pulse energy. No heat-induced distortions were found in the spectra, suggesting that the increase in the laser repetition rate provides a feasible route to an improved signal-to-noise ratio or shorter data acquisition times in BB-VSFG spectroscopy for thin films on transparent substrates. The results have implications for future BB-VSFG spectrometers pushing the detection limit for molecular layers with low surface coverage.