Discrete dispersion scan setup for measuring few-cycle laser pulses in the mid-infrared

Multiple-reflections single-shot dispersion scan for fast ultrashort-pulse measurements

A single-shot non-interferometric ultrashort-pulse measurement method based on the dispersion scan (d-scan) technique with a substantially extended time span for the pulses to be measured is presented. While single-shot d-scan is typically used for rather short femtosecond pulses, the presented multiple-reflections d-scan (MR d-scan) technique allows measurement of both short and long femtosecond pulses. Single-shot d-scan is currently limited to pulses with a maximum duration of 60 fs using a chromatic dispersion, i.e., a group delay dispersion (GDD) of 4400 fs2 at 840 nm provided by customized random nonlinear crystals. MR d-scan achieves a GDD of 31100 fs2 at 820 nm in this work, but can generally achieve an increase in GDD of up to two orders of magnitude. MR d-scan works with commonly available output couplers, does not rely on a homogeneous, precisely imaged beam profile and has an in-line configuration. As an example, long femtosecond double pulses are measured and reconstructed.

Direct electric-field reconstruction of few-cycle mid-infrared pulses in the nanojoule energy range

Amid the increasing potential of ultrafast mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser sources based on transition metal doped chalcogenides such as Cr:ZnS, Cr:ZnSe, and Fe:ZnSe lasers, there is a need for direct and sensitive characterization of mid-IR mode-locked laser pulses that work in the nanojoule energy range. We developed a two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry (2DSI) setup to successfully demonstrate the direct electric-field reconstruction of Cr:ZnS mode-locked laser pulses with a central wavelength of 2.3 µm, temporal duration of 30.3 fs, and energies of 3 nJ. The reconstructed electric field is in reasonable agreement with an independently measured intensity autocorrelation trace, and the quantitative reliability of the 2DSI measurement is verified from a material dispersion evaluation. The presented implementation of 2DSI, including a choice of nonlinear crystal as well as the use of high-throughput dispersive elements and a high signal-to-noise ratio near-IR spectrometer, would benefit future development of ultrafast mid-IR lasers and their applications.

Acousto-optic modulator based dispersion scan for phase characterization and shaping of femtosecond mid-infrared pulses

Compression, shaping and characterization of broadband mid-infrared (MIR) pulses based on an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) pulse shaper is presented. Characterization of the spectral phase is achieved by an AOM-shaper based implementation of a dispersion scan (d-scan). The abilities of the setup are demonstrated by imprinting several test phases with increasing complexity on broadband MIR pulses centered at 3.2 µm and retrieval of the imprinted phases with the presented d-scan method. Phase characterization with d-scan in combination with an evolutionary algorithm allows us to compress the MIR pulses below 50 fs FWHM autocorrelation after the shaper.

Solving nonlinear integral equations for laser pulse retrieval with Newton's method

We present an algorithm based on numerical techniques that have become standard for solving nonlinear integral equations: Newton's method, homotopy continuation, the multilevel method, and random projection to solve the inversion problem that appears when retrieving the electric field of an ultrashort laser pulse from a two-dimensional intensity map measured with frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG), dispersion-scan, or amplitude-swing experiments. Here we apply the solver to FROG and specify the necessary modifications for similar integrals. Unlike other approaches we transform the integral and work in time domain where the integral can be discretized as an overdetermined polynomial system and evaluated through list autocorrelations. The solution curve is partially continues and partially stochastic, consisting of small linked path segments and enables the computation of optimal solutions in the presents of noise. Interestingly, this is an alternative method to find real solutions of polynomial systems, which are notoriously difficult to find. We show how to implement adaptive Tikhonov-type regularization to smooth the solution when dealing with noisy data, and we compare the results for noisy test data with a least-squares solver and propose the L-curve method to fine-tune the regularization parameter.

Polarization Dependent Excitation and High Harmonic Generation from Intense Mid-IR Laser Pulses in ZnO

The generation of high order harmonics from femtosecond mid-IR laser pulses in ZnO has shown great potential to reveal new insight into the ultrafast electron dynamics on a few femtosecond timescale. In this work we report on the experimental investigation of photoluminescence and high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in a ZnO single crystal and polycrystalline thin film irradiated with intense femtosecond mid-IR laser pulses. The ellipticity dependence of the HHG process is experimentally studied up to the 17th harmonic order for various driving laser wavelengths in the spectral range 3-4 µm. Interband Zener tunneling is found to exhibit a significant excitation efficiency drop for circularly polarized strong-field pump pulses. For higher harmonics with energies larger than the bandgap, the measured ellipticity dependence can be quantitatively described by numerical simulations based on the density matrix equations. The ellipticity dependence of the below and above ZnO band gap harmonics as a function of the laser wavelength provides an efficient method for distinguishing the dominant HHG mechanism for different harmonic orders.