Nonlinear pulse compression stage delivering 43-W few-cycle pulses with GW peak-power at 2-μm wavelength

Gebhardt M, Gaida C, Heuermann T, Stutzki F, Jauregui C, Antonio-Lopez J, Schulzgen A, Amezcua-Correa R, Tuennermann A, Limpert J (2018)

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2018

Journal

Proceedings of SPIE Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Publisher: SPIE

Book Volume: 10512

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Event location: San Francisco, CA, USA

ISBN: 9781510615090

DOI: 10.1117/12.2288685

Abstract

In this contribution we demonstrate the nonlinear pulse compression of an ultrafast thulium-doped fiber laser down to 14 fs FWHM duration (sub-3 optical cycles) at a record average power of 43 W and 34.5 μJ pulse energy. To the best of our knowledge, we present the highest average power few-cycle laser source at 2 μm wavelength. This performance level in combination with GW-class peak power makes our laser source extremely interesting for driving high-harmonic generation or for generating mid-infrared frequency combs via intra-pulse frequency down-conversion at an unprecedented average power. The experiments were enabled by an ultrafast thulium-doped fiber laser delivering 110 fs pulses at high repetition rates, and an argon gas-filled antiresonant hollow-core fiber (ARHCF) with excellent transmission and weak anomalous dispersion, leading to the self-compression of the pulses. We have shown that ARHCFs are well-suited for nonlinear pulse compression around 2 μm wavelength and that this concept features excellent power handling capabilities. Based on this result, we discuss the next steps for energy and average power scaling including upscaling the fiber dimensions in order to fully exploit the capabilities of our laser system, which can deliver several GW of peak power. This way, a 100 W-class laser source with mJ-level few-cycle pulses at 2 μm wavelength is feasible in the near future.

Involved external institutions

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena DE Germany (DE) University of Central Florida (UCF) US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Gebhardt, M., Gaida, C., Heuermann, T., Stutzki, F., Jauregui, C., Antonio-Lopez, J.,... Limpert, J. (2018). Nonlinear pulse compression stage delivering 43-W few-cycle pulses with GW peak-power at 2-μm wavelength. In Ingmar Hartl, Adrian L. Carter (Eds.), Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. San Francisco, CA, USA: SPIE.

MLA:

Gebhardt, Martin, et al. "Nonlinear pulse compression stage delivering 43-W few-cycle pulses with GW peak-power at 2-μm wavelength." Proceedings of the Fiber Lasers XV: Technology and Systems 2018, San Francisco, CA, USA Ed. Ingmar Hartl, Adrian L. Carter, SPIE, 2018.

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