Third Generation Femtosecond Technology

This thesis offers a thorough and informative study of high-power, high-energy optical parametric chirped pulse amplifications systems, the foundation of the next generation of femtosecond laser technology. Starting from the basics of the linear processes involved and the essential design considerations, the author clearly and systematically describes the various prerequisites of the nonlinear optical systems expected to drive attosecond physics in the coming decade. In this context, he gives an overview of methods for generating the broadband and carrier-envelope-phase stable seed pulses necessary for producing controlled electric-field waveforms in the final system; provides a guide to handling the high-power, high-energy pump lasers required to boost the pulse energy to the desired operating range; describes the design of the nonlinear optical system used to perform the amplification, including modes of operation for ultra-broadband infrared-visible pulses or narrowband (yet still ultrafast) pulses tunable over multiple octaves; and finally presents a prospective high-energy field synthesizer based upon these techniques. As such, this work is essential reading for all scientists interested in utilizing the newest generation of ultrafast systems.

This thesis presents first successful experiments to carrier-envelope-phase stabilize a high-power mode-locked thin-disk oscillator and to compress the pulses emitted from this laser to durations of only a few-optical cycles. Moreover, the monograph introduces several methods to achieve power-scalability of compression and stabilization techniques. All experimental approaches are compared in detail and may serve as a guideline for developing high-power waveform controlled, few-cycle light sources which offer tremendous potential to exploit extreme nonlinear optical effects at unprecedentedly high repetition rates and to establish table-top infrared light sources with a unique combination of brilliance and bandwidth. As an example, the realization of a multi-Watt, multi-octave spanning, mid-infrared femtosecond source is described. The thesis starts with a basic introduction to the field of ultrafast laser oscillators. It subsequently presents additional details of previously published research results and establishes a connection between them. It therefore addresses both newcomers to, and experts in the field of high-power ultrafast laser development.

This comprehensive handbook gives a fully updated guide to lasers and laser technologies, including the complete range of their technical applications. The first volume outlines the fundamental components of lasers, their properties, and working principles. Key Features: • Offers a complete update of the original, bestselling work, including many brand-new chapters. • Deepens the introduction to fundamentals, from laser design and fabrication to host matrices for solid-state lasers, energy level diagrams, hosting materials, dopant energy levels, and lasers based on nonlinear effects. • Covers new laser types, including quantum cascade lasers, silicon-based lasers, titanium sapphire lasers, terahertz lasers, bismuth-doped fiber lasers, and diode-pumped alkali lasers. • Discusses the latest applications, e.g., lasers in microscopy, high-speed imaging, attosecond metrology, 3D printing, optical atomic clocks, time-resolved spectroscopy, polarization and profile measurements, pulse measurements, and laser-induced fluorescence detection. • Adds new sections on laser materials processing, laser spectroscopy, lasers in imaging, lasers in environmental sciences, and lasers in communications. This handbook is the ideal companion for scientists, engineers, and students working with lasers, including those in optics, electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, biomedicine, and other relevant areas.

This book presents the underlying physical picture and an overview of the state of the art of femtosecond supercontinuum generation in various transparent solid-state media, ranging from wide-bandgap dielectrics to semiconductor materials, and across various parts of the optical spectrum, from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared. A particular emphasis is placed on the most recent experimental developments: multioctave supercontinuum generation with pumping in the mid-infrared spectral range, spectral control, power and energy scaling of broadband radiation and the development of simple, flexible and robust pulse compression techniques, which deliver few optical cycle pulses and which could be readily implemented in a variety of modern ultrafast laser systems. The expected audience includes graduate students, professionals and scientists working in the field of laser-matter interactions and ultrafast nonlinear optics.

The laser has revolutionized many areas of science and society, providing bright and versatile light sources that transform the ways we investigate science and enables trillions of dollars of commerce. Now a second laser revolution is underway with pulsed petawatt-class lasers (1 petawatt: 1 million billion watts) that deliver nearly 100 times the total world's power concentrated into a pulse that lasts less than one-trillionth of a second. Such light sources create unique, extreme laboratory conditions that can accelerate and collide intense beams of elementary particles, drive nuclear reactions, heat matter to conditions found in stars, or even create matter out of the empty vacuum. These powerful lasers came largely from U.S. engineering, and the science and technology opportunities they enable were discussed in several previous National Academies' reports. Based on these advances, the principal research funding agencies in Europe and Asia began in the last decade to invest heavily in new facilities that will employ these high-intensity lasers for fundamental and applied science. No similar programs exist in the United States. Opportunities in Intense Ultrafast Lasers assesses the opportunities and recommends a path forward for possible U.S. investments in this area of science.

Photovoltaics, the direct conversion of sunlight to electricity, is now the fastest growing technology for electricity generation. Present "first generation" products use the same silicon wafers as in microelectronics. "Second generation" thin-films, now entering the market, have the potential to greatly improve the economics by eliminating material costs. Martin Green, one of the world’s foremost photovoltaic researchers, argues in this book that "second generation" photovoltaics will eventually reach its own material cost constraints, engendering a "third generation" of high performance thin-films. The book explores, self-consistently, the energy conversion potential of advanced approaches for improving photovoltaic performance and outlines possible implementation paths.

This book gives the readers an introduction to experimental and theoretical knowledge acquired by large-scale laser laboratories that are dealing with extra-high peak power and ultrashort laser pulses for research of terawatt (TW), petawatt (PW), or near-future exawatt (EW) laser interactions, for soft X-ray sources, for acceleration of particles, or for generation of hot dense thermal plasma for the laser fusion. The other part of this book is dealing with the small-scale laser laboratories that are using for its research on commercial sources of laser radiation, nanosecond (ns), picosecond (ps), or femtosecond (fs) laser pulses, either for basic research or for more advanced applications. This book is divided into six main sections dealing with short and ultrashort laser pulses, laser-produced soft X-ray sources, large-scale high-power laser systems, free-electron lasers, fiber-based sources of short optical pulse, and applications of short pulse lasers. In each chapter readers can find fascinating topics related to the high energy and/or short pulse laser technique. Individual chapters should serve the broad spectrum of readers of different expertise, layman, undergraduate and postgraduate students, scientists, and engineers, who may in this book find easily explained fundamentals as well as advanced principles of particular subjects related to these phenomena.

This book reports on the development of a pioneering light source architecture of the so-called Petawatt Field Synthesizer (PFS) system, which is based on short-pulse pumped, optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA), driven by a homemade, 1-ps diode-pumped Yb:YAG. At a few-cycle pulse duration of the amplified pulses, this architecture yields record levels of peak power and temporal contrast, the latter boasting a 100-times faster rise time from the noise level to peak intensity of the pulse compared to conventional laser systems. This allows investigation of the true laser–solid interaction without premature plasma expansion and without lossy pulse cleaning by e.g. plasma mirrors. The book describes several concepts for the generation of broadband, high-energy and high-contrast seed pulses, as well as the OPCPA development, few-cycle pulse compression and contrast characterization in a concise and insightful manner. The theory chapter serves as an excellent and accessible primer on OPCPA and other nonlinear interactions, while the experimental parts provide an excellent description of the challenges of developing such a novel architecture and some of the innovative solutions to overcome them.