title: Zeptosecond precision pulse shaping.
abstract: We investigate the temporal precision in the generation of ultrashort laser pulse pairs by pulse shaping techniques. To this end, we combine a femtosecond polarization pulse shaper with a polarizer and employ two linear spectral phase masks to mimic an ultrastable common-path interferometer. In an all-optical experiment we study the interference signal resulting from two temporally delayed pulses. Our results show a 2σ-precision of 300 zs = 300 × 10(-21) s in pulse-to-pulse delay. The standard deviation of the mean is 11 zs. The obtained precision corresponds to a variation of the arm's length in conventional delay stage based interferometers of 0.45 Å. We apply these precisely generated pulse pairs to a strong-field quantum control experiment. Coherent control of ultrafast electron dynamics via photon locking by temporal phase discontinuities on a few attosecond timescale is demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Universität Kassel, Institut für Physik und Center for Interdisciplinary Nanostructure Science and Technology (CINSaT), Kassel, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Köhler
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wollenhaupt
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bayer
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sarpe
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Baumert