High-power multi-megahertz source of waveform-stabilized few-cycle light.
Waveform-stabilized laser pulses have revolutionized the exploration of the electronic structure and dynamics of matter by serving as the technological basis for frequency-comb and attosecond spectroscopy. Their primary sources, mode-locked titanium-doped sapphire lasers and erbium/ytterbium-doped fibre lasers, deliver pulses with several nanojoules energy, which is insufficient for many important applications. Here we present the waveform-stabilized light source that is scalable to microjoule energy levels at the full (megahertz) repetition rate of the laser oscillator. A diode-pumped Kerr-lens-mode-locked Yb:YAG thin-disk laser combined with extracavity pulse compression yields waveform-stabilized few-cycle pulses (7.7 fs, 2.2 cycles) with a pulse energy of 0.15 μJ and an average power of 6 W. The demonstrated concept is scalable to pulse energies of several microjoules and near-gigawatt peak powers. The generation of attosecond pulses at the full repetition rate of the oscillator comes into reach. The presented system could serve as a primary source for frequency combs in the mid infrared and vacuum UV with unprecedented high power levels.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Fakultät für Physik, Am Coulombwall, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Pronin
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Seidel
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Fakultät für Physik, Am Coulombwall, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Lücking
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Brons
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Fedulova
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Trubetskov
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Fakultät für Physik, Am Coulombwall, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Pervak
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Fakultät für Physik, Am Coulombwall, 85748 Garching, Germany.|Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Apolonski
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Udem
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Fakultät für Physik, Am Coulombwall, 85748 Garching, Germany.|Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany.
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Krausz