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Milliradian precision ultrafast pulse control for spectral phase metrology
A 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.
Long-term hybrid stabilization of the carrier-envelope phase
Controlling 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
Saturation of the all-optical Kerr effect
Saturation of the intensity dependence of the refractive index is directly computed from ionization rates via a Kramers-Kronig transform. The linear intensity dependence and its dispersion are found in excellent agreement with complete quantum mechanical orbital computations. Higher-order terms concur with solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. Expanding the formalism to all orders up to the ionization potential of the atom, we derive a model for saturation of the Kerr effect. This model widely confirms recently published and controversially discussed experimental data and corroborates the importance of higher-order Kerr terms for filamentation.
Kramers-Kronig relations and high order nonlinear susceptibilities
As 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.
Space-time focusing and coherence properties of supercontinua in multipass cells
The 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.
Adjustable pulse compression scheme for generation of few-cycle pulses in the mid-infrared
An novel adjustable adiabatic soliton compression scheme is presented, enabling a coherent pulse source with pedestal-free few-cycle pulses in the infrared or mid-infrared regime. This scheme relies on interaction of a dispersive wave and a soliton copropagating at nearly identical group velocities in a fiber with enhanced infrared transmission. The compression is achieved directly in one stage, without necessity of an external compensation scheme. Numerical simulations are employed to demonstrate this scheme for silica and fluoride fibers, indicating ultimate limitations as well as the possibility of compression down to the single-cycle regime. Such output pulses appear ideally suited as seed sources for parametric amplification schemes in the mid-infrared.
Plasma induced pulse breaking in filamentary self-compression
A plasma induced temporal break-up in filamentary propagation has recently been identified as one of the key events in the temporal self-compression of femtosecond laser pulses. An analysis of the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation coupled to a noninstantaneous plasma response yields a set of stationary states. This analysis clearly indicates that the emergence of double-hump, characteristically asymmetric temporal on-axis intensity profiles in regimes where plasma defocusing saturates the optical collapse caused by Kerr self-focusing is an inherent property of the underlying dynamical model.
All-optical supercontinuum switching
Efficient 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).
Self-compression of 120 fs pulses in a white-light filament
Self-compression of pulses with >100 fs input pulse duration from a 10 Hz laser system is experimentally demonstrated, with a compression factor of 3.3 resulting in output pulse durations of 35 fs. This measurement substantially widens the range of applicability of this compression method, enabling self-compression of pulsed laser sources that neither exhibit extremely low pulse-to-pulse energy fluctuations nor a particularly clean beam profile. The experimental demonstration is numerically modeled, revealing the exact same mechanisms at work as at shorter input pulse duration. Additionally, the role of controlled beam clipping with an adjustable aperture is numerically substantiated
Rogue wave formation by accelerated solitons at an optical event horizon
Rogue waves, by definition, are rare events of extreme amplitude, but at the same time they are frequent in the sense that they can exist in a wide range of physical contexts. While many mechanisms have been demonstrated to explain the appearance of rogue waves in various specific systems, there is no known generic mechanism or general set of criteria shown to rule their appearance. Presupposing only the existence of a nonlinear Schrödinger-type equation together with a concave dispersion profile around a zero dispersion wavelength we demonstrate that solitons may experience acceleration and strong reshaping due to the interaction with continuum radiation, giving rise to extreme-value phenomena. The mechanism is independent of the optical Raman effect. A strong increase of the peak power is accompanied by a mild increase of the pulse energy and carrier frequency, whereas the photon number of the soliton remains practically constant. This reshaping mechanism is particularly robust and is naturally given in optics in the supercontinuum generation process.