Carrier-envelope Phase Stabilization Research Articles

Broadband difference frequency mixing between visible and near-infrared pulses for few-cycle pulse generation with stable carrier-envelope phase

Difference frequency generation between broadband visible noncollinear optical parametric amplifier (NOPA) pulses and the fundamental pump laser pulses allows the generation of ultrashort infrared pulses with passively stabilized carrier-envelope phase. A simple prism compressor for the visible NOPA pulses is sufficient to generate few-cycle pulses in the infrared and no additional compression is needed. We theoretically investigate the concept, explain the principles, and demonstrate it for high repetition rate, long pulse durations, and various wavelengths by applying it to a Ti:sapphire and an Yb:KYW-based laser systems. For the latter sub-15 fs phase stable pulses around 1.8 μm with an energy of 100 nJ are obtained at 100 kHz repetition rate.

Direct carrier–envelope phase stabilization of a soliton-effect compressed sub-two-cycle pulse source through nonlinear mixing of solitonic and dispersive waves

We present a carrier–envelope phase (CEP) stabilized sub-two-cycle 5.2 fs pulse source based on soliton-effect self-compression of femtosecond laser pulses in millimetre-long highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibres. We employ a simple and efficient scheme to generate a strong (40–60 dB, configuration dependent) CEP beat signal directly from the pulse source via f-to-2f interferometry where the second harmonic of the main soliton pulse is mixed with the isolated dispersive blue/green radiation peak that is also generated in the compression process, obviating the need for additional spectral broadening mechanisms.

Discretely tunable comb spacing of a frequency comb by multilevel phase modulation of a periodic pulse train

We experimentally demonstrate tunable comb spacing of an original 10-GHz periodic frequency comb by spectral Talbot effect over an unprecedented range of even and odd comb spacing division factors, from 2 to 9. The implementation has been achieved by periodic electro-optic (EO) temporal phase modulation of the original comb (conventional mode-locked optical pulse train) with multilevel modulation functions, produced by an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG). These comb spacing division processes have been observed through the use of a high-resolution (20-MHz) optical spectrum analyzer. Comb spacing tuning is achieved without essentially affecting the spectral bandwidth and total energy of the original comb signal. Our results also confirm that the spectral Talbot method does not require carrier-envelope phase stabilization in the input frequency comb. Numerical studies on the impact of deviations in the applied phase modulation functions confirm the robustness of the technique, in agreement with the experimental results.

Carrier-envelope phase control of Yb:KGW laser and parametric amplifiers

In this paper we present the most recent results on the optimization of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stabilization of a Yb:KGW laser system and parametric amplifiers. The implementation of several CEP locking techniques and their combinations allowed us to reduce the RMS phase noise of the oscillator to the values below 100 mrad and demonstrate the operation of the whole laser system with the CEP jitter of 170 mrad. The active and passive CEP stabilization for parametric amplifiers was tested. The operation of optical parametric amplifiers in the passive CEP stabilization regime with an additional slow feedback loop providing the CEP jitter as low as 70 mrad over 6 hours was demonstrated.

Improving carrier-envelope phase stability in optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers by control of timing jitter

It is shown that timing jitter in optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification induces spectral drifts that transfer to carrier-envelope phase (CEP) instabilities via dispersion. Reduction of this effect requires temporal synchronization, which is realized with feedback obtained from the angularly dispersed idler. Furthermore, a novel method to measure the CEP drifts by utilizing parasitic second harmonic generation within parametric amplifiers is presented. Stabilization of the timing allows the obtainment of a CEP stability of 86 mrad over 40 min at 150 kHz repetition rate.

Generation of carrier-envelope phase-stable two optical-cycle pulses at 2 μm from a noncollinear beta-barium borate optical parametric amplifier

We report on the generation of two optical-cycle, carrier-envelope phase-stable pulses with energy of 15 μJ at central wavelength of 2 μm. Pulses of 15 fs (2.3 optical cycles) duration are obtained by difference-frequency generation, which at the same time provides passive carrier-envelope phase stabilization, and noncollinear optical parametric amplification in beta-barium borate crystal, which is shown to provide broad phase-matching bandwidth if seeded by pulses in the 1.6-2.6 μm wavelength range. Pulse compression is achieved by means of a simple propagation through the optical setup and by precisely controlling the initial chirp of the pulses to be frequency downconverted.

Long-term carrier-envelope-phase-stable few-cycle pulses by use of the feed-forward method

The feed-forward technique has recently revolutionized carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stabilization, enabling unprecedented values of residual phase jitter. Nevertheless, its demonstrations have hitherto remained in a proof-of-principle state. Here we show that pulse quality and power issues can be solved, leading to few-cycle pulses with good beam quality. Making use of stable interferometers, we achieve day-long CEP-stable operation of the setup. Out-of-loop RMS phase noise amounts to less than 30 mrad in 20 s, with more than 24 h of CEP-locked operation being demonstrated.

High-power ultra-broadband frequency comb from ultraviolet to infrared by high-power fiber amplifiers

A high-power ultra-broadband frequency comb covering the spectral range from ultraviolet to infrared was generated directly by nonlinear frequency conversion of a multi-stage high-power fiber comb amplifier. The 1030-nm infrared spectral fraction of a broadband Ti:sapphire femtosecond frequency comb was power-scaled up to 100 W average power by using a large-mode-area fiber chirped-pulse amplifier. We obtained a frequency-doubled green comb at 515 nm and frequency-quadrupled ultraviolet pulses at 258 nm with the average power of 12.8 and 1.62 W under the input infrared power of 42.2 W, respectively. The carrier envelope phase stabilization was accomplished with an ultra-narrow line-width of 1.86 mHz and a quite low accumulated phase jitter of 0.41 rad, corresponding to a timing jitter of 143 as.

Carrier-envelope phase stabilization of a terawatt level chirped pulse amplifier for generation of intense isolated attosecond pulses

We demonstrate the first carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stabilized chirped pulse amplification system with pulse peak-powers in the terawatt regime. The system, which eventually is intended to be used in the generation of isolated attosecond pulses, consists of two consecutive multipass amplification stages. The first amplification stage is a commercial CEP-stable kHz system including a single 13-pass amplifier reaching a pulse energy of 2.3 mJ. Pulses are picked after the first stage at a repetition rate of 50 Hz and are further amplified in a 5-pass power-amplifier to pulse energies that reach up to 80 mJ before compression. After compression the pulse energy is 35mJ at a pulse duration of 32 fs, signifying a peak power of 1.1 terawatt. Peak-powers exceeding 1.5 TW should easily be achievable by improving the efficiency of the grating compressor. The CEP-stability of the terawatt system is demonstrated by single shot measurements of the residual CEP jitter at the full repetition rate and show an excellent root-mean-square value of 315 mrad.

Carrier-envelope phase stabilization with sub-10 as residual timing jitter

We demonstrate carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stabilization of a mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator with unprecedented timing jitter of eight attoseconds. The stabilization performance is obtained by a combination of two different stabilization approaches. In a first step the drift of the CEP is stabilized with a conventional feedback loop by means of controlling the oscillator pump power with an acousto-optic modulator (AOM). In a second step we utilize a recently developed feed-forward type stabilization scheme which has a much higher control bandwith. Here an acousto-optic frequency shifter (AOFS) produces the stabilized output in the first diffraction order. Moreover, we present numerical results on the optimization of the length of the photonic crystal fiber, which is used to generate an octave-spanning spectrum, in order to optimize the sensitivity in the f-to-2f interferometers.

Carrier-Envelope Phase stabilization of a 20 W, grating based, chirped-pulse amplified laser, using Electro-Optic effect in a LiNbO_3 crystal

Using an original CEP stabilization technique based on the linear electro-optical effect in a specific crystal, we achieved long term CEP stabilization of a 20 W, 1 kHz laser with residual noise as low as 440 mrad (rms). At 3 W, the CEP shot to shot noise is kept as low as 320 mrad (rms) over half an hour.

Improved carrier-envelope phase locking of intense few-cycle laser pulses using above-threshold ionization

A robust nonoptical carrier-envelope phase (CEP) locking feedback loop, which utilizes a measurement of the left-right asymmetry in the above-threshold ionization (ATI) of Xe, is implemented, resulting in a significant improvement over the standard slow-loop f-to-2f technique. This technique utilizes the floating average of a real-time, every-single-shot CEP measurement to stabilize the CEP of few-cycle laser pulses generated by a standard Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplified laser system using a hollow-core fiber and chirped mirror compression scheme. With this typical commercially available laser system and the stereographic ATI method, we are able to improve short-term (minutes) CEP stability after a hollow-core fiber from 450 to 290 mrad rms and long-term (hours) stability from 480 to 370 mrad rms.

Carrier envelope phase stabilization of a Yb:KGW laser amplifier

In this paper we report on the active stabilization of the carrier envelope phase (CEP) of a Yb:KGW chirped pulse amplifier laser system seeded by a Yb-doped solid-state Kerr-lens mode-locked oscillator. The regenerative amplifier delivers 180 fs CEP stable pulses of 30 μJ-1 mJ energy at a repetition rate tunable from 1 to 200 kHz. The bandwidth of the feedback loop was extended by a factor of 5 using a specially designed high-pass filter, which resulted in a dramatic decrease of CEP jitter below 0.45 rad after the amplifier.

Noise performance of a feed-forward scheme for carrier-envelope phase stabilization

The noise performance of a feed-forward scheme for carrier-envelope phase stabilization is discussed. This scheme uses an acousto-optic frequency shifter to directly correct for fluctuations of the carrier-envelope phase in a pulse train emitted by a mode-locked laser without manipulating the intracavity dispersion. Generation of zero-offset frequency combs is demonstrated. Furthermore, it is shown that pump laser noise has only a minor effect on the achievable performance. Limited only by the travel time of the acoustic wave in the shifter, pump laser noise can be corrected up to near-megahertz frequencies, which yields superior noise performance compared to traditional feedback operation. Residual phase jitters down to 45 mrad are experimentally verified.

High-energy, phase-stable, ultrabroadband kHz OPCPA at 2.1 μm pumped by a picosecond cryogenic Yb:YAG laser.

We report on a kHz, mJ-level, carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-stable ultrabroadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) at 2.1-μm wavelength, pumped by a high-energy, 14 ps, cryogenic Yb:YAG pump laser, and its application to high-order harmonic generation (HHG) with Xe. The pre-amplifier chain is pumped by a 12-ps Nd:YLF pump laser and both pump lasers are optically synchronized to the signal pulse of the OPCPA. An amplified pulse energy of 0.85 mJ was obtained at the final OPCPA stage with good beam profile. The pulse is compressed to 4.5 optical cycles (<32 fs) with a spectral bandwidth of 474 nm supporting 3.5 optical cycles. The CEP stability was measured to be 194 mrad and the super-fluorescence noise is estimated to be ~9%. First HHG results are demonstrated with Xe showing significant cutoff extension to >85 eV with an efficiency of ~10-10 per harmonic, limited by the maximum gas pressure and flow into the chamber. This demonstrates the potential of this 2.1-μm source for scaling of photon energy and flux in the water-window range when applied to Ne and He at kHz repetition rate.

Multi-mJ carrier envelope phase stabilized few-cycle pulses generated by a tabletop laser system

A compact system for the generation of few-cycle multi-mJ Carrier Envelope Phase (CEP) stabilized pulses is presented. At the output 1.9 mJ, 5.7 fs pulses were achieved after hollow fiber compression (HFC) of 5 mJ, 25 fs circularly-polarized pulses from a Ti:sapphire multipass chirped pulse amplifier (CPA). Polarization control of the generated pulses was done using all reflective phase retarders which can be nearly arbitrarily scaled for increasing energies. The CEP noise from the amplifier system is shown to be 190 mrad rms over a period of more than 7 hours. The full system, i.e., oscillator, amplifier, CEP stabilization, and HFC is compact enough to fit on a standard optical table.

Generation of carrier-envelope phase stabilized intense 15 cycle pulses at 175 μm

A three-stage high conversion efficiency optical parametric amplifier (OPA) with passively stabilized carrier-envelope phase (CEP) is presented. After passing through an argon-filled hollow fiber and the dispersion compensator for pulse compression, CEP stabilized 0.7 mJ, 1.5 cycle laser pulses at 1.75 μm center wavelength are obtained. Terahertz (THz) emission spectroscopy is adopted to determine the value of CEP, indicating an excellent long-term CEP stability.

Carrier-envelope phase offset for pulses from a tunable optical parametric amplifier

The carrier-envelope phase (CEP) characteristics of the tunable infrared laser pulses from a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier (OPA) with passively stabilized CEP are investigated experimentally. We compare the CEP fluctuation of different wavelength outputs from the OPA which is seeded by the idler pulse of a difference frequency generation (DFG) process. It is found that when the OPA output is tuned to a longer wavelength, the CEP fluctuation becomes less sensitive to the jitter of laser intensity and the phase mismatch, and therefore more stable CEP for the longer wavelength output pulses is realized.

Few‐optical‐cycle light pulses with passive carrier‐envelope phase stabilization

AbstractOne of the most advanced frontiers of ultrafast optics is the control of carrier‐envelope phase (CEP) ϕ of light pulses, which enables the generation of optical waveforms with reproducible electric field profile. Such control is important for pulses with few‐optical‐cycle duration, for which a CEP variation produces a strong change in the waveform, so that strongly nonlinear optical phenomena, such as multiphoton absorption, above‐threshold ionization and high‐harmonic generation become CEP‐dependent. In particular, CEP control is the prerequisite for the production of isolated attosecond pulses. Standard laser systems generate pulses that are CEP unstable; the CEP can be stabilized using either active or passive methods. Passive, all‐optical schemes rely on difference‐frequency generation (DFG) between two pulses sharing the same CEP: in this process the phases of the two pulses add up with opposite signs, leading to cancellation of the shot‐to‐shot CEP fluctuations. This paper presents an overview of passive CEP stabilization schemes, starting from the basic concepts and progressing to the details of the practical implementations of the idea. The passive approach allows the generation of CEP‐controlled few‐optical‐cycle pulses covering a very broad range of parameters in terms of carrier frequency (from visible to mid‐IR), energy (up to several mJs) and repetition rate (up to hundreds of kHz)

Long-term maintenance of the carrier-envelope phase coherence of a femtosecond laser

The long-term carrier-envelope phase (CEP) coherence of a femtosecond laser with same pulse-to-pulse CEP value, obtained using the direct locking method, is demonstrated by employing a quasi-common-path interferometer (QPI). For the evaluation of the CEP stability, the phase noise properties of a femtosecond laser with the CEP stabilized using a QPI are compared with those obtained using a Mach-Zehnder f-2f interferometer, for which the phase power spectral density and the Allan deviation were calculated from the beat signals of the interferometers. With the improved CEP stability, the long-term CEP coherent signal with an accumulated phase noise well below 1 radian can be maintained for more than 56 hours, i.e., the CEP coherence is preserved without a phase cycle slip for more than 1.6 × 10(13) pulses at a repetition rate of 80 MHz. The relative stability is also estimated to be approximately 1.4 × 10(-22) at a central wavelength of 790 nm.