Few‐optical‐cycle light pulses with passive carrier‐envelope phase stabilization

One of the most advanced frontiers of ultrafast optics is the control of carrier‐envelope phase (CEP) ϕ of light pulses, which enables the generation of optical waveforms with reproducible electric field profile. Such control is important for pulses with few‐optical‐cycle duration, for which a CEP variation produces a strong change in the waveform, so that strongly nonlinear optical phenomena, such as multiphoton absorption, above‐threshold ionization and high‐harmonic generation become CEP‐dependent. In particular, CEP control is the prerequisite for the production of isolated attosecond pulses. Standard laser systems generate pulses that are CEP unstable; the CEP can be stabilized using either active or passive methods. Passive, all‐optical schemes rely on difference‐frequency generation (DFG) between two pulses sharing the same CEP: in this process the phases of the two pulses add up with opposite signs, leading to cancellation of the shot‐to‐shot CEP fluctuations. This paper presents an overview of passive CEP stabilization schemes, starting from the basic concepts and progressing to the details of the practical implementations of the idea. The passive approach allows the generation of CEP‐controlled few‐optical‐cycle pulses covering a very broad range of parameters in terms of carrier frequency (from visible to mid‐IR), energy (up to several mJs) and repetition rate (up to hundreds of kHz)     

Carrier-envelope phase offset for pulses from a tunable optical parametric amplifier

The carrier-envelope phase (CEP) characteristics of the tunable infrared laser pulses from a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier (OPA) with passively stabilized CEP are investigated experimentally. We compare the CEP fluctuation of different wavelength outputs from the OPA which is seeded by the idler pulse of a difference frequency generation (DFG) process. It is found that when the OPA output is tuned to a longer wavelength, the CEP fluctuation becomes less sensitive to the jitter of laser intensity and the phase mismatch, and therefore more stable CEP for the longer wavelength output pulses is realized.     

High-order harmonic generation of pulses with multiple timescales: selection rules,carrier envelope phase and cutoff energy

ABSTRACT

High harmonic generation (HHG) is sensitive to the carrier envelope phase (CEP) of its driving laser field if it is a sufficiently short pulse (several-cycle pulse). Here we show that strong CEP effects can also be found in HHG from long duration multi-cycle pulses (up to 200?fs at 800?nm central wavelength). We find that HHG from multi-cycle pulses may be CEP dependent when the driving pulse exhibits two distinct timescales (multi-timescale pulse): (i) a short timescale associated with the average frequency, and (ii) a long timescale associated with the pulse’s temporal periodicity. The interplay of these timescales results in significant changes to both the cutoff frequency, and the appearance of symmetry allowed harmonics in the spectrum as function of CEP, similar to HHG from several-cycle pulses. We relate this effect to the multi-timescale intensity variations in the driving pulse, and construct an analytical condition to access the phenomenon. Lastly, we numerically demonstrate reconstruction of the CEP through HHG from long duration multi-timescale pulses. Our work may be useful in several areas of strong-field physics and attosecond science, for example, allowing spectroscopy of multi-timescale processes (e.g. HHG from vibrationally active media), and paving the way towards CEP characterisation using long pulses.     

Isolated attosecond pulse generation with few-cycle two-color counter-rotating circularly polarized laser pulses

Most of the schemes for generating isolated attosecond pulses(IAP) are sensitive to the carrier-envelope phase(CEP)of the driving lasers. We propose a scheme for generating IAP using two-color counter-rotating circularly polarized(TCCRCP) laser pulses. The results demonstrate that the dependence of the IAP generation on CEP stability is largely reduced in this scheme. IAP can be generated at most of CEPs. Therefore, the experiment requirements become lower.     

Implementation of the direct locking method for long-term carrier-envelope-phase stabilization of a grating-based kHz femtosecond laser

We have stabilized the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of amplified femtosecond laser pulses from a grating-based chirped-pulse amplification femtosecond laser by the direct locking method. Long-term CEP stabilization in the oscillator was achieved by employing a double-feedback loop to control both the pumping power and the cavity dispersion. Large CEP drift, induced during amplification, was compensated by adjusting the grating separation in the pulse compressor, and the CEP stabilization was maintained for four hours with a phase jitter of about 180 mrad. After pulse compression to 5.5-fs pulses in a filamentation pulse compressor, CEP-stabilized laser pulses were applied for high-harmonic generation to confirm the CEP stabilization.     

Multi-mJ carrier envelope phase stabilized few-cycle pulses generated by a tabletop laser system

A compact system for the generation of few-cycle multi-mJ Carrier Envelope Phase (CEP) stabilized pulses is presented. At the output 1.9?mJ, 5.7?fs pulses were achieved after hollow fiber compression (HFC) of 5?mJ, 25?fs circularly-polarized pulses from a Ti:sapphire multipass chirped pulse amplifier (CPA). Polarization control of the generated pulses was done using all reflective phase retarders which can be nearly arbitrarily scaled for increasing energies. The CEP noise from the amplifier system is shown to be 190?mrad rms over a period of more than 7?hours. The full system, i.e., oscillator, amplifier, CEP stabilization, and HFC is compact enough to fit on a standard optical table.     

Generation of soft x-ray and water window harmonics using a few-cycle, phase-locked, optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier

Multimillijoule, few-cycle, carrier-envelope-phase (CEP)-locked, near-IR pulses at 750 nm from an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier are applied to the generation of CEP-dependent, soft x-ray high harmonics around the boron K-edge at 188 eV. The dependence on the CEP manifests the phase coherence of high harmonics preserved in the highest-photon energy ever reported. Multimillijoule optical pulses also allow the extension of the cutoff energy up to 325 eV, exceeding the carbon K-edge of the water window. However, in this spectral range, the CEP dependence of harmonic spectra is not observed, suggesting the degradation of temporal coherence due to the heavy ionization of helium atoms.     

Carrier-envelope phase effects on high-harmonic generation driven by mid-infrared laser field

The influence of the carrier-envelope phase on high-harmonic generation is investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, for three different interaction gas media, driven by mid-infrared, few-cycle and CEP-stabiUzed laser pulses. Different patterns of harmonic spectra with varying CEP for the three interaction gas media are observed. Furthermore, in comparing our experiment results to the previous works driven by near-infrared laser pulses, different phenomena are found. Through numerical simulation, we find that for the two different kinds of driving fields, i.e. mid-infrared and near-infrared laser pulses, different kinds of electron trajectories contribute to the generation of high harmonics.     

载波-包络相位稳定的周期量级近红外超短脉冲激光系统

利用光参量放大过程输出的闲置光载波-包络相位(CEP)被动稳定的特点,搭建了三级光参量放大(OPA)系统,获得了CEP稳定的近红外高能量超短激光脉冲(1.4 mJ/40 fs/1 kHz @ 1.8 μm),其CEP抖动为516 mrad(rms).经空心光纤展宽光谱和块体材料补偿色散,激光脉宽最终可被压缩至小于两个光学周期(<12 fs),脉冲能量达到0.54 mJ.该系统为单个阿秒脉冲的产生和其他高次谐波实验提供了优质的光源. 关键词： 光参量放大 周期量级近红外激光脉冲 载波-包络相位稳定     

Time-energy properties of an attosecond extreme ultra-violet pulse

The time-energy properties of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) are calculated for a linearly polarized 7-fs laser pulse with different carrier-envelope phases (CEPs). The quantum trajectory paths that contribute to an as (1 as=10-18 s) pulse in HHG are identified. The laser-duration dependence and the CEP dependence of HHG energy property are investigated. The study shows that an as extreme ultra-violet (XUV) pulse can be selected from HHG spectrum near cut-off energy with a bandpass optical filter. The theoretical prediction of the pulse duration is proportional to bandwidth. Analysis suggests that a measured narrowband as XUV pulse may consist of instantaneous shorter pulses each dependent on laser pulse duration, intensity, and CEP. These information can be used as references for producing, selecting, improving and manipulating (timing) as pulses.     

Minimizing dispersive distortions in carrier-envelope phase sweeping with glass wedges

A systematic experimental study is performed to examine the f-2f technique for sweeping the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of few-cycle laser pulses by changing the amount of positive dispersion in the extracavity beam path. Slightly changing the dispersion not only changes the CEP but affects the entire spectral-phase function. As a result, large discrepancies are found between the true CEP as independently measured with a stereo-above-threshold-ionization spectrometer and the CEP detected by an f-2f interferometer when sweeping the phase with glass wedges. A new CEP-stabilization scheme is proposed and experimentally shown to significantly improve the performance of CEP sweeping.     

Definitions and control of the CEP and CEO

The definitions of the carrier to envelope phase (CEP) and carrier to envelope offset (CEO) arc reviewed. It is pointed out that a unique separation of the field of an ultrashort pulse in a “carrier” and “envelope” is not always possible for ultrashort pulses. Another definition is proposed for pulses of a few optical cycles, that is not dependent on the notion of “carrier” and “envelope.” The carrier to envelope offset (CEO) is a frequency, generally defined as the ratio of the change in CEP between pulses, to the pulse (temporal) spacing. It is shown that the CEO exists for trains of long pulses, for which the CEP cannot be measured. Methods of measuring the CEO of a mode-locked laser are proposed. It is shown that MQW have a locking tendency on the CEO of two pulse trains.     

利用两束同色圆偏振激光场产生水窗区间阿秒脉冲

数值研究了氦原子在两束同色圆偏激光场下发射高次谐波以及阿秒脉冲的特点.计算结果表明,当适当调节两束激光场的波长,相位以及时间延迟时,不仅高次谐波谱的平台区域能得到很大的扩展,而且谐波的强度也有较大的增强,形成了一个500 e V的超长平台区.最后,通过适当的叠加谐波平台上的谐波,可获得一系列脉宽为35 as左右的水窗区间阿秒脉冲.     

利用两束同色圆偏振激光场产生水窗区间阿秒脉冲

数值研究了氦原子在两束同色圆偏激光场下发射高次谐波以及阿秒脉冲的特点.计算结果表明,当适当调节两束激光场的波长,相位以及时间延迟时,不仅高次谐波谱的平台区域能得到很大的扩展,而且谐波的强度也有较大的增强,形成了一个500eV的超长平台区.最后,通过适当的叠加谐波平台上的谐波,可获得一系列脉宽为35as左右的水窗区间阿秒脉冲.     

All-optical control of the carrier-envelope phase with multi-stage optical parametric amplifiers verified with spectral interference

Intense ultrashort laser pulses with stabilized carrier-envelope phase (CEP) are generated at 800 nm by using multi-stage collinear and non-collinear optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs). The first-stage collinear OPA is directly pumped by the fundamental-wave pulses and tuned to generate idler pulses at 1600 nm, which are further amplified by a second-stage collinear OPA, and then frequency-doubled to generate CEP-stabilized pulses at 800 nm. A non-collinear OPA is used to amplify the CEP-stabilized pulses at 800 nm. The combination of different OPAs can generate and amplify CEP-stabilized pulses at 800 nm without any detrimental influence from the fundamental-wave pulses. The CEP stabilization is verified with a simple and robust spectral interference setup. The stable interference pattern is measured for every single pulse and compared with the unstable pattern from pulses of random CEP. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.65.Yj; 42.25.Kb     

双光路测量红外飞秒激光脉冲的载波包络相位稳定性

描述了利用双光路自参考技术测量红外飞秒脉冲载波包络相移的方法,并通过建立的红外飞秒脉冲载波包络相移测量装置,实验测量了自主搭建的可调谐光学参量放大系统输出的红外飞秒激光脉冲的载波包络相移.对于1.6 μm的激光脉冲,测量得到在100 s内其相位抖动为115 mrad（rms）.实验结果表明双光路法具有易于调节、测量方便、应用性强等优点. 关键词： 飞秒激光测量 自参考技术 双光路 载波包络相位     

Carrier-envelope phase measurement using plasmonic-field-enhanced high-order harmonic generation of H atom in few-cycle laser pulses

We investigate the plasmonic-field-enhanced high-order harmonic generation (HHG) of H atom driven by few-cycle laser pulses, by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE). Compared with the homogeneous field, HHG spectra generated by inhomogeneous field exhibit two-plateau structure. We analyze the origin of the two plateaus by using the semiclassical trajectory method. Our results from both classical and TDSE simulations show that the cutoffs of the two plateaus are dramatically affected by the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of laser pulse in the inhomogeneous field, even for a little longer pulse. Thus, we can determine the CEP of driving laser based on the cutoff position of HHG generated in the inhomogeneous field.     

Grism compressor for carrier-envelope phase-stable millijoule-energy chirped pulse amplifier lasers featuring bulk material stretcher

We demonstrate compression of amplified carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stable laser pulses using paired transmission gratings and high-index prisms, or grisms, with chromatic dispersion matching that of a bulk material pulse stretcher. Grisms enable the use of larger bulk stretching factors and thereby higher energy pulses with lower B-integral in a compact amplifier design suitable for long-term CEP control.     

All optical method for measuring the carrier envelope phase from half-cycle cutoffs

An all optical method is demonstrated for measuring the carrier-envelope phase （CEP） of few-cycle laser pulses. It is found that, in the few-cycle regime, the high harmonic spectrum generated from asymmetric molecules shows several half-cycle cutoffs that change their positions as the CEP varies. Such half-cycle cutoffs represent the fingerprint of different quantum trajectories and the waveform of the driving pulse. In this case, the CEP can be accurately measured from the half-cycle cutoffs.     

Broadband Terahertz Wave Generation from Monolayer Graphene Driven by Few-Cycle Laser Pulse

We theoretically investigate the characteristics of terahertz(THz) radiation from monolayer graphene exposed to normal incident few-cycle laser pulses, by numerically solving the extended semiconductor Bloch equations. Our simulations show that the THz spectra in low frequency regions are highly dependent on the carrier envelope phase(CEP) of driving laser pulses. Using an optimal CEP of few-cycle laser pulses, we can obtain broadband strong THz waves, due to the symmetry breaking of the laser-graphene system. Our results also show that the strength of the THz spectra depend on both the intensity and central wavelength of the laser pulses. The intensity dependence of the THz wave can be described by the excitation rate of graphene, while wavelength dependence can be traced back to the band velocity and the population of graphene. We find that a near single-cycle THz pulse can be obtained from graphene driven by a mid-infrared laser pulse.