Temporal characterization of two-octave infrared pulses by frequency resolved optical switching

Adrien Leblanc,Antoine Laramée,Heide Ibrahim,Adrien Longa,Mayank Kumar,Philippe Lassonde,Charles Dansereau,François Légaré

doi:10.1088/2515-7647/ac184f

Abstract

We present the temporal characterization of infrared pulses with spectra extending from 0.55 to 2.5 μm by using the frequency resolved optical switching (FROSt) technique. The pulses are obtained by broadening femtosecond pulses at 1.75 μm central wavelength in a two-stage hollow core fiber setup. This work demonstrates the capability of the FROSt technique to temporally characterize pulses with ultra-broadband spectra. Being free of phase-matching constraints, it enables the characterization of pulses with very low energy at the limit of the detection threshold and with arbitrary long pulse duration. This strength of the FROSt technique is illustrated by the characterization of supercontinua pulses whose spectra span over two octaves and with only 150 nJ energy that is spread temporally over almost 40 ps. The FROSt capabilities provide a versatile tool for the characterization of sub-cycle pulses and to study nonlinear processes such as supercontinuum generation.

Highlights

The generation and temporal characterization of single to sub-cycle laser pulses with high energy [1, 2] is motivated by the quests of generating attosecond x-ray pulses [3,4,5] and ultrashort electron bunches [6,7,8], for tracking ultrafast dynamics in atoms [9, 10], molecules [11, 12] and solids [13, 14]
We have demonstrated the capability of the frequency resolved optical switching (FROSt) technique to temporally characterize pulses with two more than octaves of bandwidth, spanning from the visible to the near infrared spectral range from 0.55 to 2.5 μm
Exploiting the phase-matching free property of FROSt, this technique has proven its flexibility by the characterization, with the same setup, of different one-octave bandwidth pulses whose energy temporally spreads over a few-10 fs to a few-ps

Summary

27 August 2021

Adrien Leblanc1,2,∗ , Adrien Longa, Mayank Kumar , Antoine Laramée, Charles Dansereau, Heide Ibrahim , Philippe Lassonde and François Légaré1,∗. We present the temporal characterization of infrared pulses with spectra extending from 0.55 to maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title 2.5 μm by using the frequency resolved optical switching (FROSt) technique. This work demonstrates the capability of the FROSt technique to temporally characterize pulses with ultra-broadband spectra. Being free of phase-matching constraints, it enables the characterization of pulses with very low energy at the limit of the detection threshold and with arbitrary long pulse duration. This strength of the FROSt technique is illustrated by the characterization of supercontinua pulses whose spectra span over two octaves and with only 150 nJ energy that is spread temporally over almost 40 ps. The FROSt capabilities provide a versatile tool for the characterization of sub-cycle pulses and to study nonlinear processes such as supercontinuum generation

Introduction

Methods

Conclusions

Data availability statement