Opt Lett. 2023 Feb 15;48(4):984-987. doi: 10.1364/OL.478790.
Few-cycle pulses present an essential tool to track ultrafast dynamics in matter and drive strong field effects. To address photon-hungry applications, high average power lasers are used which, however, cannot directly provide sub-100-fs pulse durations. Post-compression of laser pulses by spectral broadening and dispersion compensation is the most efficient method to overcome this limitation. We present a notably compact setup which turns a 0.1-GW peak power, picosecond burst-mode laser into a 2.9-GW peak power, 8.2-fs source. The 120-fold pulse duration shortening is accomplished in a two-stage hybrid multi-pass, multi-plate compression setup. To our knowledge, neither shorter pulses nor higher peak powers have been reported to-date from bulk multi-pass cells alone, manifesting the power of the hybrid approach. It puts, for instance, compact, cost-efficient, and high repetition rate attosecond sources within reach.
少周期脉冲是跟踪物质中超快动力学和驱动强场效应的重要工具。为了满足光子需求的应用，使用了高平均功率激光器，但它们不能直接提供低于 100 飞秒的脉冲持续时间。通过光谱展宽和色散补偿对激光脉冲进行后压缩是克服这一限制的最有效方法。我们提出了一种显著紧凑的设置，可将 0.1GW 峰值功率、皮秒突发模式激光转换为 2.9GW 峰值功率、8.2fs 源。在两级混合多程、多板压缩设置中，脉冲持续时间缩短了 120 倍。据我们所知，迄今为止，从体多程单元中单独报告的最短脉冲或更高的峰值功率都没有达到这一水平，这表明了混合方法的威力。例如，它使紧凑型、具有成本效益和高重复率的阿秒源成为可能。
