Extreme nonlinear optics in atomic multi-level systems
Final Report Abstract
To study extreme nonlinear optics in multi-level atomic systems was the aim of this project. For that purpose, ultrashort pulses with spectra spanning well beyond one octave with durations in the single-cycle regime had to be generated and compressed. While the generation of the necessary bandwidth from a home-built two-color OPCPA system has been successfully demonstrated, the phase compensation and compression to the single-cycle has not been successful yet. A very new concept of tailored chirp compensation with an LCD shaper in a 4fsetup together with a nanostructured ‘staircase like’ phase correcting mirror has been proposed and designed. This would allow for a static coarse pre-compensation of the residual phase plus fine adjustment from the LCD array. The production of the mirror with demanding specifications has been tried multiple times with partners experienced in the LIGA technology. Unfortunately, technology does not seem to be ready for this yet. Lacking the single-cycle pulses, the final work packages demonstrating the application of these pulses in atomic multilevel systems are yet to come. The formulation of a dedicated follow-up proposal is put on hold, until a suitable concept for pulse compression becomes apparent. In parallel, substantial progress has been achieved in deeper understanding the spatio-temporal amplification dynamics in non-collinear parametric few-cycle amplifiers. A dedicated (2+1)D simulation code has been implemented to analyze and predict the pulsing dynamics in different phase matching scenarios. The agreement to the experimental findings was particularly high – and even in the case of the ultra-broadband two-color sequential amplification scheme, the code gave a proper performance prediction.
Publications
- Temporal and spatial effects inside a compact and CEP-stabilized, few cycle dual-stage OPCPA system at high repetition rates, Optics Express 21, 29656–65 (2013)
J. Matyschok, T. Lang, T. Binhammer, O. Prochnow, S. Rausch, M. Schultze, A. Harth, P. Rudawski, C.L. Arnold, A. L’Huillier, U. Morgner
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.21.029656) - “Towards characterization and compression of 1.5 octaves spectrum spanning from VIS to IR from two-color pumped OPCPA system”, Advanced Solid-State Lasers Congress Technical Digest, OSA (2013)
Ayhan Tajalli, Anne Harth, José R. Andrade, Tamas Nagy and Uwe Morgner
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1364/ASSL.2013.JTh2A.57) - „Impact of temporal, spatial and cascaded effects on the pulse formation in ultrabroadband parametric amplifiers“, Optics Express 21, No. 1 (2013)
Tino Lang, Anne Harth, Jan Matyschok, Thomas Binhammer, Marcel Schultze and Uwe Morgner
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.21.000949) - Compact, highrepetition rate OPCPA system for high harmonic generation, Proc. SPIE 2014, 89720L (2014)
J. Matyschok, T. Binhammer, T. Lang, O. Prochnow, S. Rausch, P. Rudawski, A. Harth, M. Miranda, C. Guo, E. Lorek, J. Mauritsson, C.L. Arnold, A. L’Huillier, U. Morgner
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2035810) - Carrier-envelope phase dependent high-order harmonic generation with a high-repetition rate OPCPA-system, European Physics Journal D 69, 70 (2015)
P. Rudawski, A. Harth, C. Guo, E. Lorek, M. Miranda, C.M. Heyl, E.W. Larsen, J. Matyschok, T. Binhammer, U. Morgner, J. Mauritsson, A. L'Huillier, C.L. Arnold
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2015-50568-y)
