High-average-power kilohertz-repetition-rate sub-100-fs Ti:sapphire amplifier system

We report on a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser amplifier system that generates pulse energies >5 mJ at a 1-kHz repetition rate. The system consists of regenerative and multipass amplifiers and uses the technique of chirped-pulse amplification. When the system was seeded with 70-fs pulses at 800 nm from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator, amplified pulses of 94-fs duration at a repetition rate of 1 kHz and an average output power of 5.4 W were produced. The amplified pulse-repetition rate is variable from 250 Hz to 3 kHz. Pulse energies of >7.5 mJ were obtained at 500 and 250 Hz.     

Second-harmonic generation from a KBe(2) BO(3)F(2) crystal in the deep ultraviolet

By use of KBe(2)BO(3)F(2) (KBBF) crystal with a size of 10 mmx10 mm x1.2 mm and a special prism-coupling technique (PCT), fourth-harmonic generation of Ti:sapphire laser systems from 200 to 179.4 nm has been achieved. Moreover, with a Ti:sapphire laser with a 50-fs pulse duration and a 1-kHz repetition rate, conversion efficiency as high as 13% from 400 to 200 nm without any surface-loss correction has also been obtained. The data show that with the PCT a KBBF crystal can produce deep-UV coherent light with measurable power output.     

Multimillijoule chirped parametric amplification of few-cycle pulses

The concept of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification is applied to attain pulses with energies up to 8 mJ and a bandwidth of more than 100 THz. Stretched broadband seed pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator are amplified in a multistage noncollinear type I phase-matched beta-barium borate parametric amplifier by use of an independent picosecond laser with lock-to-clock repetition rate synchronization. Partial compression of amplified pulses is demonstrated down to a 10-fs duration with a down-chirped pulse stretcher and a nearly lossless compressor comprising bulk material and positive-dispersion chirped mirrors.     

Generation of sub-6-fs blue pulses by frequency doubling with quasi-phase-matching gratings

We demonstrate the generation of sub-6-fs pulses centered at 405 nm by frequency doubling of 8.6-fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses. The frequency doubling is carried out in a nonlinearly chirped quasi-phase-matching grating fabricated in a lithium tantalate substrate. This device simultaneously provides frequency conversion and pulse compression of the positively prechirped fundamental pulses. The second-harmonic pulses are characterized in a cross-correlation setup, and their pulse shapes are retrieved by two iterative phase-reconstruction algorithms. The generated second-harmonic spectrum spans a bandwidth of 220 THz. To our knowledge, these are the shortest pulses ever generated in the blue spectral region.     

0.2-TW laser system at 1kHz

We have developed a 1-kHz repetition-rate Ti:sapphire laser system that can simultaneously generate high peak and average powers of 0.2TW and 4W, respectively. The laser system generates 4-mJ energy pulses with a 20-fs pulse width. We eliminated thermal lensing in the system by cooling the Ti:sapphire crystal to 125K. The output 20-fs pulses were fully characterized by use of the new technique of transient-grating frequency-resolved optical gating. We demonstrate experimentally that the pulse duration at the output is limited only by fifth-order dispersion.     

Generation of 8-fs pulses at 390 nm

We demonstrated the generation of pulses as short as approximately 8 fs at 390 nm, with an average power of 80 mW by frequency-doubling the output of a sub-10-fs, 1.2-MW Ti:sapphire oscillator. Cross-correlation technique was employed to measure the pulse duration. To our knowledge, these are the shortest pulses produced in the violet-blue spectral range at high repetition rates so far.     

Sub-20-fs pulses tunable across the visible from a blue-pumped single-pass noncollinear parametric converter

Femtosecond pulses with center wavelengths between 470 and 750 nm are generated in a single-stage type I BBO optical parametric amplifier pumped by a frequency-doubled 1-kHz Ti:sapphire amplifier. A high-quality white-light continuum is used as the seed. Pulse durations as short as 16 fs and pulse energies of as much as 11 microJ are observed. The quantum efficiency is ~25% for both 7- and 40-microJ pump pulses. This unique combination of ultrashort pulse duration and high conversion is made possible by noncollinear phase matching that permits a sufficiently large amplification bandwidth. Simultaneously the group velocities of the signal and the idler are effectively matched. As a result widely tunable sub-20-fs pulses can be generated in a nonlinear crystal as thick as 2 mm.     

Pulse characteristics of an optical parametric oscillator pumped by sub-30-fs light pulses

We obtained nearly transform-limited light pulses of 34 fs near 1.2 microm by pumping an optical parametric oscillator with a 2-mm-long KTP crystal by 26-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser. The average power of the pulses that were obtained was greater than 50 mW, at an 80-MHz repetition rate. Attempts to downscale the pulse duration by decreasing the pump-pulse duration revealed remarkable limitations of the attainable pulse length for sub-30-fs pump pulses, in accordance with a recent theoretical study [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 17, 741 (2000)].     

Two-color facility based on a broadly tunable infrared free-electron laser and a subpicosecond-synchronized 10-fs-Ti:sapphire laser

Subpicosecond synchronization between a mirror-dispersion-controlled 10-fs Ti:sapphire laser and the Free-Electron Laser for Infrared Experiments has been achieved. The measured intensity cross correlation between the two lasers is consistent with a jitter of only 400 fs rms. The wide and continuous tunability of the free-electron laser (FEL; 4.2-300mum) combined with ultrashort pulse duration of six optical cycles and high pulse energy of several tens of microjoules makes a series of two-color experiments possible in a previously inaccessible wavelength range. We demonstrate these capabilities by performing a two-color pump-probe experiment to study carrier cooling in GaAs. A FEL tuned from 8 to 17mum is used as the pump, and a synchronized Ti:sapphire laser pulse serves as the probe.     

Optimization of highly efficient terahertz generation in lithium niobate driven by Ti:sapphire laser pulses with 30 fs pulse duration

We systematically study the optimization of highly efficient terahertz(THz) generation in lithium niobate(LN)crystal pumped by 800 nm laser pulses with 30 fs pulse duration. At room temperature, we obtain a record optical-to-THz energy conversion efficiency of 0.43% by chirping the pump laser pulses. Our method provides a new technique for producing millijoule THz radiation in LN via optical rectification driven by joule-level Ti:sapphire laser systems, which deliver sub-50-fs pulse durations.     

Generation of intense tunable 20-fs pulses near 400nm by use of a gas-filled hollow waveguide

An intense continuously tunable 20-fs source is demonstrated for the region between 370 and 430nm with pulse energies of as much as 20 muJ. By use of high-power frequency-doubled pulses from a 32-fs 1-kHz Ti:sapphire laser system a blue continuum is produced in an Ar-filled hollow fiber. After compression with dispersive delay lines the resulting pulses are analyzed by use of the self-diffraction frequency-resolved optical gating technique.     

Generation of 150-nJ pulses from a multiple-pass cavity Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:Al2O3 oscillator

A high-pulse-energy, prismless, Kerr-lens mode-locked, extended cavity Ti:sapphire laser is demonstrated with double-chirped mirrors and a multiple-pass cavity. The laser operates at 5.85-MHz repetition rate and generates pulse energies as high as 150 nJ with 43-fs pulse duration, corresponding to peak powers of 3.5 MW directly from the laser.     

Generation of 0.1-TW 5-fs optical pulses at a 1-kHz repetition rate

A compact all-solid-state femtosecond Ti:sapphire oscillator?amplifier system using no grating-based pulse stretcher produces 20-fs, 1.5-mJ pulses at a 1-kHz repetition rate. The pulses are subsequently compressed in a hollow-fiber chirped-mirror compressor. The system delivers bandwidth-limited 5-fs, 0.5-mJ pulses at 780 nm in a diffraction-limited beam.     

Generation of high-quality 10-femtosecond laser pulses with intracavity spatial and spectral control

Spatial and spectral control, using an intracavity capillary and a slit, is applied to improve the output pulse quality of a Ti:sapphire laser. Satellite-free 10-fs optical pulses with a smooth spectral and spatial profile have been generated. Employing a root-mean-square formalism for pulse characterization, spatial, spectral and temporal intensity distributions are analyzed for laser pulses with a duration as short as three to four optical cycles. Received: 11 June 2001 / Published online: 18 July 2001     

Spectral-Phase-Modulated Cross-Polarized Wave for Chirped Pulse Amplifier with High Contrast Ratio

We demonstrate a high-quality cross-polarized-wave filter based on spectral phase modulation. Driven by wellcompressed spectral-phase fully-compensated fundamental laser pulses, the filter stretches the pulse bandwidth from 35 nm to 70 nm with a conversion efficiency of 20%. After implementing the filter into a femtosecond TW Ti:sapphire laser system, we generate 40 mJ output pulse energy with pulse duration of 18.9 fs. The temporal contrast of the compressed pulse is enhanced to 10~9.     

Experimental demonstration of joule-level non-collinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification in yttrium calcium oxyborate

In this Letter, we report on what is, to our knowledge, the first experimental demonstration of yttrium calcium oxyborate (YCOB) for joule-level and broadband non-collinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification centered at 800 nm. Based on a Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification front end, an amplified signal energy of 3.36 J was generated with a pump of 35 J in the crystal. Compressed pulse duration of 44.3 fs, with a bandwidth of 49 nm, was achieved. The results confirm that YCOB crystal is another potential alternative as a final amplifier besides Ti:sapphire in a petawatt laser at 800 nm.     

High-power intracavity frequency doubling of a Ti:sapphire femtosecond oscillator

We demonstrate intracavity frequency doubling of a standard femtosecond Ti:sapphire oscillator. The cavity is extended with a pair of focusing mirrors and a 0.5-mm-thick BBO crystal. We achieve a repetition rate of 50 MHz and simultaneously generate 22 mW of 55-fs pulses at 810 nm and 200 mW of 73-fs pulses at 405 nm, which corresponds to 4 nJ per pulse. We create a total of 330-mW, 405-nm light when pumping the Ti:sapphire crystal with 5.7 W from an Ar-ion laser, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 5.7%. No saturation is found, which implies that higher outputs can be achieved with higher pump rates. Preliminary results from the use of blue pulses as pump in an optical parametric amplifier seeded by pulses from a photonic crystal fiber are presented. Received: 27 January 2003 / Revised version: 27 March 2003 / Published online: 12 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +45-861/96199, E-mail: tva@chem.au.dk     

无展宽器的高重复率钛宝石啁啾飞秒脉冲再生放大器的研究

通过优化放大腔结构参数和采用高光束质量的泵浦激光,依靠放大器腔内各个元件的色散展宽种子脉冲, 用钛宝石作为增益介质, 在低泵浦能量下, 实现了高光束质量,高稳定的中等能量的高重复率飞秒脉冲再生放大. 将钛宝石晶体离焦放置,有效的避免了光学损伤. 在1.1 mJ的绿光泵浦下, 获得了2 ps, 120 μJ, 重复频率为1 KHz, 光谱带宽7.8 nm的放大脉冲, 用石英棱镜对压缩可得到130 fs的激光脉冲.     

A double-pass optical parametric amplifier seeded by a blue-shifted output of a photonic-crystal fiber

A blue-shifted output of a photonic-crystal fiber, providing a frequency upconversion of femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser pulses, is used to seed a double-pass optical parametric oscillator (OPA). The OPA is based on a BBO crystal, pumped by 65-mW 150-fs second-harmonic pulses of a Ti:sapphire laser. Gain factors in excess of 10³ are demonstrated for such an OPA, yielding tunable light pulses within the range of wavelengths from 420 to 650 nm, a peak power up to 250 kW, and a typical pulse width of about 200 fs at a repetition rate of 100 kHz. PACS 42.81.Gs; 42.81.Qb     

Femtosecond-resolution measurement of soft-X-ray pulse duration using ultra-fast population increase of singly charged ions induced by optical-field ionization

We demonstrate sub-100-fs resolution of a cross-correlation method for measuring the duration of soft-X-ray pulses. The method uses the ultra-fast increase in a singly charged ion population induced by optical-field ionization as a soft-X-ray -absorption switch. We measured the pulse duration of the 51st harmonic of a Ti:sapphire laser pulse using Kr gas as a soft-X-ray absorption medium and found it to be 60 fs assuming that the harmonic envelope is equal to a squared secant hyperbolic. This confirmed that our method achieves a shorter temporal resolution than the 100-fs pulse duration of the ionizing laser pulse. The temporal resolution obtained in this way is expected to be from one-third to one-half the duration of the ionizing laser pulse, according to our calculation of the time-evolving population of the Kr⁺ ions. The experimental demonstration and calculation show that methods based on optical-field-induced ionization are promising for femtosecond temporal characterization of an ultra-short pulse in the soft-X-ray region. PACS 42.50.Hz; 42.65.Ky; 32.80.Rm; 06.60.Jn