Ionization-Induced Self-Compression of Tightly Focused Femtosecond Laser Pulses

He, Z-H and Nees, J. A. and Hou, B. and Krushelnick, K. and Thomas, A. G. R. (2014) Ionization-Induced Self-Compression of Tightly Focused Femtosecond Laser Pulses. Physical review letters, 113 (26): 263904. ISSN 0031-9007

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Abstract

As lasers become progressively higher in power, optical damage thresholds will become a limiting factor. Using the nonlinear optics of plasma may be a way to circumvent these limits. Here, we present a new self-compression mechanism for high-power, femtosecond laser pulses based on geometrical focusing and three dimensional spatiotemporal reshaping in an ionizing plasma. By propagating tightly focused, 10-mJ femtosecond laser pulses through a 100-mu m gas jet, the interplay between ionization gradients, focusing, and diffraction of the light pulse leads to stable and uniform self-compression of the pulse, while maintaining a high-energy throughput and excellent refocusability. Self-compression down to 16 fs from an original 36-fs pulse is measured using second-harmonic-generation frequency-resolved optical gating. Using this mechanism, we are able to maintain a high transmission (>88%) such that the pulse peak power is doubled. Three-dimensional numerical simulations are performed to support our interpretation of the experimental observations.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Physical review letters
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3100/3100
Subjects:
?? helium gasenergypostcompressionacceleratorsgenerationphysicsfsgeneral physics and astronomyphysics and astronomy(all) ??
ID Code:
82698
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
08 Nov 2016 11:02
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Jul 2024 10:05