Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Research Articles

Broadband 1.5 GHz VECSEL-Based Laser System for High Speed Multicontrast Nonlinear Imaging

We demonstrate a 1.5 GHz broadband laser system based on a passively mode-locked Vertical-External-Cavity Surface-Emitting-Laser (VECSEL) for high speed nonlinear imaging. The 300 nm wide supercontinuum generated via photonic crystal fiber (PCF) coupled with pulse shaping by means of multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) allows us to procedurally filter out spectral windows of interest for nonlinear imaging applications as well as compress the resulting pulses to their transform-limited duration. The intrinsically high repetition rate our system is operating at matches the typical fluorescence lifetime of many biological samples, making it an ideal source for rapid nonlinear bio-imaging while mitigating the risks of photobleaching and photodamage.

Implementation of temporal ptychography algorithm, i2PIE, for improved single-beam coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering measurements

We present an improvement on the signal-to-background of single-beam coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SB-CARS) spectroscopy measurements for systems employing ultrafast supercontinuum sources based on all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fibers. Improvements to the signal-to-background arise in the use of a new pulse-reconstruction algorithm based on temporal ptychography, i 2 P I E . A simple SB-CARS strategy is used to measure the spectrum of para-xylene, where the supercontinuum pulses used are compressed using multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) and, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, i 2 P I E using the same single-beam setup. With the i 2 P I E implementation, the signal-to-background is improved by nearly a factor of 4 in comparison with MIIPS. More notably, the integrated SB-CARS spectral intensity is increased by a factor of 6.5.

Common pulse retrieval algorithm: a fast and universal method to retrieve ultrashort pulses

We present a common pulse retrieval algorithm (COPRA) that can be used for a broad category of ultrashort laser pulse measurement schemes including frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG), interferometric FROG, dispersion scan, time domain ptychography, and pulse shaper assisted techniques such as multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS). We demonstrate its properties in comprehensive numerical tests and show that it is fast, reliable and accurate in the presence of Gaussian noise. For FROG it outperforms retrieval algorithms based on generalized projections and ptychography. Furthermore, we discuss the pulse retrieval problem as a nonlinear least-squares problem and demonstrate the importance of obtaining a least-squares solution for noisy data. These results improve and extend the possibilities of numerical pulse retrieval. COPRA is faster and provides more accurate results in comparison to existing retrieval algorithms. Furthermore, it enables full pulse retrieval from measurements for which no retrieval algorithm was known before, e.g., MIIPS measurements.

Phase retrieval of ultrashort laser pulses using a MIIPS algorithm.

We developed a new method for retrieving the group delay dispersion of a laser from Multiphoton Intra-pulse Interference Phase Scan (MIIPS) data. The method takes into account the spectral amplitude of the laser pulse and provides a direct feedback on the accuracy of the retrieval. The main advantage of the method derives from providing sufficiently high accuracy to avoid the need for multiple experimental iterations. Another advantage is that the new method can discriminate among pulses with different spectral phase and amplitude profiles, in which MIIPS traces occupy the same position in the phase-frequency MIIPS map.

Compression of ultrashort laser pulses via gated multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scans

Delivering femtosecond laser light in the focal plane of a high numerical aperture microscope objective is still a challenge, despite significant developments in the generation of ultrashort pulses. One of the most popular techniques, used to correct phase distortions resulting from propagation through transparent media, is the multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS). The accuracy of MIIPS however is limited when higher order phase distortions are present. Here we introduce an improvement, called Gated-MIIPS, which avoids shortcomings of MIIPS, reduces the influence of higher order phase terms, and can be used to more efficiently compress broad band laser pulses even with a simple 4f pulse shaper setup. In this work we present analytical formulas for MIIPS and Gated-MIIPS valid for chirped Gaussian pulses; we show an approximated analytic expression for Gated-MIIPS valid for arbitrary pulse shapes; finally we demonstrate the increased accuracy of Gated-MIIPS via experiment and numerical simulation.

Real-time single-shot measurement and correction of pulse phase and amplitude for ultrafast lasers

The transition of femtosecond lasers from the laboratory to commercial applications requires real-time automated pulse compression, ensuring optimum performance without assistance. Single-shot phase measure- ments together with closed-loop optimization based on real-time multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan are demonstrated. On-the-fly correction of amplitude, as well as second- and third-order phase distortions based on the real-time measurements, is accomplished by a pulse shaper.© 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers

Spectral phase measurement and compensation of femtosecond laser pulse based on multi-photon intra-pulse interference phase scan

In this paper, we develop a system that can be used to measure and compensate spectral phase of femtosecond laser pulses based on the multi-photon intra-pulse interference phase scan (MIIPS). In the system, a liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM) is used to impose phase scan on the femtosecond laser pulse, while a spectrometer is used to record the MIIPS trace. Both the LC-SLM and the spectrometer are driven by home-developed LabVIEW programs. By analyzing the MIIPS trace, we obtain the spectral phase of the pre-chirped femtosecond laser pulse with only 3-times iteration. The femtosecond laser pulse is centered at 810 nm and has a repetition of 1 kHz. The accuracy of our measurement is less than ±0.1 rad. The measured phases are compensated by the LC-SLM, then we obtain a femtosecond laser pulse which is almost in the transform limit state. The device will be useful in many fields, for example, multi-photon microscopy, pulse shaping, and femtosecond laser spectroscopy etc.

Shaper-based approach to real-time correction of ultrashort pulse phase drifts and transient pulse dispersion measurements

We demonstrate for the first time active dispersion and amplitude correction in a fiber laser producing sub-45 fs pulses. The approach is based on single-shot second and third order dispersion measurement based on multiphoton intrapulse interference. The same principle is applied to obtain time-resolved measurements of the transient dispersion induced by an intense laser pulse on a silica window.

Optically engineered ultrafast pulses for controlled rotations of exciton qubits in semiconductor quantum dots

Shaped ultrafast pulses designed for controlled-rotation (C-ROT) operations on exciton qubits in semiconductor quantum dots are demonstrated using a quantum control apparatus operating at ∼1 eV. Optimum pulse shapes employing amplitude and phase shaping protocols are implemented using the output of an optical parametric oscillator and a programmable pulse shaping system, and characterized using autocorrelation and multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan techniques. We apply our pulse characterization results and density matrix simulations to assess the fundamental limits on the fidelity of the C-ROT operation, providing a benchmark for the evaluation of sources of noise in other quantum control experiments. Our results indicate the effectiveness of pulse shaping techniques for achieving high fidelity quantum operations in quantum dots with a gate time below 1 ps.

Compressor optimization with compressor-based multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS)

The multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) technique is modified to optimize the compressor settings of a chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser system. Here, we use the compressor itself to perform the phase scan inherent in MIIPS measurement . A frequency-resolved optical gating measurement shows that the pulse duration of the compressor optimized using the modified MIIPS technique is 33.8 fs with a 2.24 rad temporal phase variation above 2% intensity. The measured time-bandwidth product is 0.60, which is close to that of transform-limited Gaussian pulse (0.44).

Pulse-shaping multiphoton FRET microscopy.

Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) microscopy is a commonly-used technique to study problems in biophysics that range from uncovering cellular signaling pathways to detecting conformational changes in single biomolecules. Unfortunately, excitation and emission spectral overlap between the fluorophores create challenges in quantitative FRET studies. It has been shown previously that quantitative FRET stoichiometry can be performed by selective excitation of donor and acceptor fluorophores. Extending this approach to two-photon FRET applications is difficult when conventional femtosecond laser sources are used due to their limited bandwidth and slow tuning response time. Extremely broadband titanium:sapphire lasers enable the simultaneous excitation of both donor and acceptor for two-photon FRET, but do so without selectivity. Here we present a novel two-photon FRET microscopy technique that employs pulse-shaping to perform selective excitation of fluorophores in live cells and detect FRET between them. Pulse-shaping via multiphoton intrapulse interference can tailor the excitation pulses to achieve selective excitation. This technique overcomes the limitation of conventional femtosecond lasers to allow rapid switching between selective excitation of the donor and acceptor fluorophores. We apply the method to live cells expressing the fluorescent proteins mCerulean and mCherry, demonstrating selective excitation of fluorophores via pulse-shaping and the detection of two-photon FRET. This work paves the way for two-photon FRET stoichiometry.

High-power widely tunable sub-20fs Gaussian laser pulses for ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy

We demonstrate the generation of widely tunable sub-20 fs Gaussian-shaped laser pulses using a grating-based 4-f pulse shaper and a liquid crystal spatial light modulator. Our pump source is an Yb:KGW solitary mode-locked oscillator at 44 MHz repetition rate which is coupled into a large mode area microstructured fiber to generate a broad spectrum from below 900 nm to above 1150 nm. These pulses are precompressed by a prism sequence and subsequently sent into the pulse shaper. We use the multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) for phase shaping and iterative amplitude optimization to achieve Gaussian-like tunable sub-20 fs pulses with output powers of up to 142 mW as well as nontunable pulses with 310 mW output power as short as 11.5 fs.

Cross-validation of theoretically quantified fiber continuum generation and absolute pulse measurement by MIIPS for a broadband coherently controlled optical source

The predicted spectral phase of a fiber continuum pulsed source rigorously quantified by the scalar generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation is found to be in excellent agreement with that measured by multiphoton intra-pulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) with background subtraction. This cross-validation confirms the absolute pulse measurement by MIIPS and the transform-limited compression of the fiber continuum pulses by the pulse shaper performing the MIIPS measurement, and permits the subsequent coherent control on the fiber continuum pulses by this pulse shaper. The combination of the fiber continuum source with the MIIPS-integrated pulse shaper produces compressed transform-limited 9.6 fs (FWHM) pulses or arbitrarily shaped pulses at a central wavelength of 1020 nm, an average power over 100 mW, and a repetition rate of 76 MHz. In comparison to the 229-fs pump laser pulses that generate the fiber continuum, the compressed pulses reflect a compression ratio of 24.

Compression of fiber supercontinuum pulses to the Fourier-limit in a high-numerical-aperture focus

A multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) adaptively and automatically compensates the combined phase distortion from a fiber supercontinuum source, a spatial light modulator pulse shaper, and a high-NA microscope objective, allowing Fourier-transform-limited compression of the supercontinuum pulses at the focus of the objective. A second-harmonic-generation-based method is employed to independently validate the transform-limited compression. The compressed pulses at the focus of the objective have a tunable duration of 10.8-38.9 fs (FWHM), a central wavelength of ~1020 nm, an average power of 18-70 mW, and a repetition rate of 76 MHz, permitting the application of this source to nonlinear optical microscopy and coherently controlled microspectroscopy.

Effect of pulse temporal shape on optical trapping and impulse transfer using ultrashort pulsed lasers

We investigate the effects of pulse duration on optical trapping with high repetition rate ultrashort pulsed lasers, through Lorentz-Mie theory, numerical simulation, and experiment. Optical trapping experiments use a 12 femtosecond duration infrared pulsed laser, with the trapping microscope's temporal dispersive effects measured and corrected using the Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan method. We apply pulse shaping to reproducibly stretch pulse duration by 1.5 orders of magnitude and find no material-independent effects of pulse temporal profile on optical trapping of 780nm silica particles, in agreement with our theory and simulation. Using pulse shaping, we control two-photon fluorescence in trapped fluorescent particles, opening the door to other coherent control applications with trapped particles.

Two-photon imaging using adaptive phase compensated ultrashort laser pulses

An adaptive pulse shaper controlled by multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scanning (MIIPS) was used, together with a prism-pair, to measure and cancel high-order phase distortions introduced by a high-numerical-aperture objective and other dispersive elements of a two-photon laser-scanning microscope. The delivery of broad-bandwidth (approximately 100 nm), sub-12-fs pulses was confirmed by interferometric autocorrelation measurements at the focal plane. A comparison of two-photon imaging with transform-limited and second-order-dispersion compensated laser pulses of the same energy showed a 6-to-11-fold improvement in the two-photon excitation fluorescence signal when applied to cells and tissue, and up to a 19-fold improvement in the second harmonic generation signal from a rat tendon specimen.

Asynchronous encrypted information transmission with sub-6 fs laser system at 2.12 GHz repetition rate

The asynchronous transmission (encoding and decoding) of 64-bit information using binary spectral phase shaping is demonstrated. The accurate introduction and retrieval of the binary information is possible by using multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) to measure and correct the spectral phase distortions of the laser and the transmission media. Experimental demonstration is achieved using a sub-6 fs Ti:Sapphire laser with 2.12-GHz repetition rate and an adaptive phase control system.

Broadband 2.12 GHz Ti:sapphire laser compressed to 5.9 femtoseconds using MIIPS

We report a self-starting prismless femtosecond Ti:sapphire ring laser whose repetition rate has been gradually increased from 1 to 2.12 GHz. A broadband spectrum extending from 650 to 1040 nm, in which 17% of the intracavity power is generated in a single-pass through the crystal, is preserved in spite of the reduction in peak power. An average power of 0.95 W was obtained for 7.5 W of pump power, with very stable operation verified over 22 hours. Pulses from this laser have been fully characterized in spectral phase, and then compressed to 5.9 femtoseconds using multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS).

Interference without an interferometer: a different approach to measuring, compressing, and shaping ultrashort laser pulses

The inherent brevity of ultrashort laser pulses prevents a direct measurement of their electric field as a function of time; therefore different approaches based on autocorrelation have been used to characterize them. We present a discussion, guided by experimental studies, regarding accurate measurement, compression, and shaping of ultrashort laser pulses without autocorrelation or interferometry. Our approach based on phase shaping, multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan, provides a direct measurement of the spectral phase. Illustrations of this method include new results demonstrating wavelength independence, compatibility with sub-5fs pulses, and a perfect match for experimental coherent control and biomedical imaging applications.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL IDENTIFICATION OF CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS USING SHAPED FEMTOSECOND PULSES

Detection and identification of chemical warfare simulants based on multidimensional phase shaped femtosecond laser pulses coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) is demonstrated. The presented approach is based on binary phase shaping (BPS) and aims to improve the accuracy and precision required for security applications. It is based on multiphoton intrapulse interference of femtosecond laser pulses. Spectra retrieved by applying n-differently shaped pulses represent n-dimensions of the analysis. We present a multidimensional technique for detection and identification of analogues to chemical agents and mixtures in real-time. Experimental results for dimethyl phosphate, pyridine, and three isomers of nitrotoluene are presented.