title: Generation of high-fidelity few-cycle pulses at 2.1 μm via cross-polarized wave generation.
abstract: We demonstrate the generation of temporally clean few-cycle pulses at 2.1 μm by shortening of 6-optical-cycle pulses via cross-polarized wave (XPW) generation in BaF(2), CaF(2) and CVD-Diamond crystals. By combining spectra and single-shot third-order intensity cross-correlation traces in a novel Bayesian pulse retrieval technique, we measured pulse durations of 20 fs, corresponding to 2.8 optical cycles. Our results show that XPW generation in the infrared could provide a high-fidelity source of few-cycle pulses for strong-field physics applications. It could also serve as an injector for high-peak power ultrafast mid-IR wavelength parametric amplifiers.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-Paristech, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, 91761 Palaiseau, France. aurelien.ricci@ensta-paristech.fr
authors.forename: Aurélien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ricci
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jullien
authors.forename: Seth L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Cousin
authors.forename: Dane R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Austin
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Biegert
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lopez-Martens
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007259:Infrared Rays; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*