Ultrafast lasers articles within Nature Photonics

Featured

  • Perspective |

    Since the inception of the idea of temporal solitons in optical fibres, published in 1973, the concept of optical solitons has revolutionized the fundamental science of optics and photonics technologies. This Perspective gives an outlook on the future of solitons in ultrafast lasers, frequency combs, biomedical applications, telecommunications and signal processing, as well as the emerging new science of solitons.

    • Andrea Blanco-Redondo
    • , C. Martijn de Sterke
    •  & Sergei K. Turitsyn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A nonlinear multi-pass cell is shown to be able to shift the central wavelength of a laser by tens of nanometres, offering a new means for control for high-power laser systems

    • Prannay Balla
    • , Henrik Tünnermann
    •  & Christoph M. Heyl

  • News & Views |

    Coherent multi-octave mid-infrared waveforms are created and manipulated by cascaded intrapulse difference-frequency generation, demonstrating absolute phase control, and adding to the growing arsenal of techniques for arbitrary light-wave control.

    • Jeffrey Moses
    •  & Shu-Wei Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A new solution to Maxwell’s equations, photonic toroidal vortex, is experimentally realized.

    • Chenhao Wan
    • , Qian Cao
    •  & Qiwen Zhan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Continuously adjustable single-cycle waveform spanning from 0.9 to 12.0 μm is obtained by cascaded intrapulse difference-frequency generation in a ZnGeP2 crystal. The cascade-associated phase response—distinct for different spectral bands—provides a new tuning parameter for waveform adjustment.

    • Philipp Steinleitner
    • , Nathalie Nagl
    •  & Ka Fai Mak

  • Article |

    Near-transform-limited 630 fs pulses with 4.5 W of peak power are generated by compensating the dispersion of a quantum cascade laser emitting around 8 μm. Their temporal nature is assessed by a new method called asynchronous upconversion sampling.

    • Philipp Täschler
    • , Mathieu Bertrand
    •  & Jérôme Faist

  • Letter |

    Direct generation of few-cycle high-energy visible pulses is demonstrated via the nonlinear mixing of hollow-core fibre modes. Compression of near-infrared laser pulses by a factor of 40 with no additional dispersion compensation delivers 4.6 fs, 20 μJ pulses (~2 cycles, ~4 GW peak power) centred at around 600 nm.

    • R. Piccoli
    • , J. M. Brown
    •  & L. Razzari

  • News & Views |

    Four-wave mixing near atomic resonances offers new opportunities for spectral control of extreme ultraviolet pulses.

    • John E. Beetar
    •  & Michael Chini

  • Letter |

    Through a dense krypton gas jet in the presence of a broadband near-infrared pulse, spectral compression of broadband XUV radiation between 145 and 130 nm wavelengths into a narrow-bandwidth XUV pulse at 100.3 nm wavelength by four-wave mixing is demonstrated.

    • L. Drescher
    • , O. Kornilov
    •  & B. Schütte

  • Letter |

    Using a gas-filled anti-resonant-reflection photonic-crystal fibre, a high-brightness table-top source of coherent carrier-envelope-phase-stable waveforms is demonstrated across seven octaves (340 nm to 40,000 nm) with ultraviolet peak powers up to 2.5 MW and terahertz peak powers of 1.8 MW, without the need for changing nonlinear crystals.

    • Ugaitz Elu
    • , Luke Maidment
    •  & Jens Biegert

  • Review Article |

    The potential of machine-learning application to the field of ultrafast photonics is reviewed, with key examples including pulsed lasers, and control and characterization of ultrafast propagation dynamics.

    • Goëry Genty
    • , Lauri Salmela
    •  & Sergei K. Turitsyn

  • News & Views |

    New methods to control how laser pulses propagate inside a plasma could signify the start of a global race to demonstrate truly high-energy compact particle accelerators.

    • Rob J. Shalloo
    •  & Stuart P. D. Mangles

  • Article |

    Optical waveforms with a 1.7 octave spectrum and 0.6 optical cycle duration are generated at a central wavelength of 1.4 μm by parametric waveform synthesis. The output pulse energies amount to >500 μJ with fluctuations of 1% r.m.s. over 1,000 shots.

    • Giulio Maria Rossi
    • , Roland E. Mainz
    •  & Franz X. Kärtner

  • Article |

    By suppressing the second- and third-order intracavity dispersion using an intracavity spectral pulse shaper, a mode-locked laser that emits pure-quartic soliton pulses that arise from the interaction of the fourth-order dispersion and the Kerr nonlinearity is demonstrated.

    • Antoine F. J. Runge
    • , Darren D. Hudson
    •  & Andrea Blanco-Redondo

  • News & Views |

    Judicious scaling of the waveguide properties of a simple hollow capillary fibre filled with helium allows for powerful pulse temporal compression down to the sub-femtosecond level, further enabling the efficient generation of ultrafast ultraviolet light.

    • Benjamin Wetzel
    •  & Fetah Benabid

  • Article |

    Optical soliton dynamics in large-core hollow capillary fibres is demonstrated. The findings enable the scaling of soliton effects by several orders of magnitude to the multi-millijoule energy and terawatt peak power levels, and open up opportunities for new-generation table-top light sources for ultrafast strong-field physics and advanced spectroscopy.

    • John C. Travers
    • , Teodora F. Grigorova
    •  & Federico Belli

  • Letter |

    Temporal dissipative soliton formation in a free-space femtosecond enhancement cavity with a thin Kerr medium is reported. Locking a 350-fs, 1,035-nm pulse train with a repetition rate of 100 MHz to this cavity-soliton state generates a 37-fs sech2-shaped pulse with a peak-power enhancement of 3,200.

    • N. Lilienfein
    • , C. Hofer
    •  & I. Pupeza

  • News & Views |

    The study of the complex, unstable dynamics of lasers is not just of scientific value but is also creating new opportunities for making secure lidar and generating high-frequency microwave signals.

    • Oliver Graydon

  • Article |

    The observation of soliton crystals in monolithic Kerr microresonators is reported. The physics of such resonators is explored in a regime of dense soliton occupation, offering a way to increase the efficiency of Kerr combs.

    • Daniel C. Cole
    • , Erin S. Lamb
    •  & Scott B. Papp

  • Article |

    An optical method for the temporal and spatial reconstruction of the electric field of few-cycle pulses is developed. The method is based on two attosecond technologies: extreme-ultraviolet interferometry and a directional electric field detector.

    • P. Carpeggiani
    • , M. Reduzzi
    •  & G. Sansone

  • Letter |

    A laser–plasma accelerator delivering 5-MeV electrons at kHz repetition rate is demonstrated. It is achieved in the laser-wakefield-acceleration regime by using a multi-mJ laser system delivering near-single-cycle laser pulses of 3.4-fs duration.

    • D. Guénot
    • , D. Gustas
    •  & J. Faure

  • News & Views |

    A new method of stimulating crystal growth by laser light could enhance the way we make materials.

    • Andrew J. Alexander

  • News & Views |

    The spatiotemporal characterization of a high-peak-power pulsed laser beam reveals previously undetected wavefront distortions.

    • Tamas Nagy
    •  & Günter Steinmeyer

  • Letter |

    A compact source that generates sub-two-cycle-duration pulses with an average power of 0.1 W spanning 6.8–16.4 μm combines the properties of power scalability, high repetition rate and phase coherence for the first time in this spectral region.

    • I. Pupeza
    • , D. Sánchez
    •  & J. Biegert

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