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High-power sub-two-cycle mid-infrared pulses at 100 MHz repetition rate

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 721–724 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Powerful coherent light with a spectrum spanning the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range is crucial for a number of applications in natural as well as life sciences, but so far has only been available from large-scale synchrotron sources1. Here we present a compact apparatus that generates pulses with a sub-two-cycle duration and with an average power of 0.1 W and a spectral coverage of 6.8–16.4 μm (at −30 dB). The demonstrated source combines, for the first time in this spectral region, a high power, a high repetition rate and phase coherence. The MIR pulses emerge via difference-frequency generation (DFG) driven by the nonlinearly compressed pulses of a Kerr-lens mode-locked ytterbium-doped yttrium–aluminium–garnet (Yb:YAG) thin-disc oscillator. The resultant 100 MHz MIR pulse train is hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than state-of-the-art frequency combs that emit in this range2,3,4, and offers a high dynamic range for spectroscopy in the molecular fingerprint region4,5,6,7 and an ideal prerequisite for hyperspectral imaging8 as well as for the time-domain coherent control of vibrational dynamics9,10,11.

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Figure 1: Driving laser.
Figure 2: MIR generation and detection set-up.
Figure 3: MIR beam profile.
Figure 4: DFG results.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Cluster of Excellence ‘Munich Centre for Advanced Photonics’, Fundacio Cellex Barcelona, the Ministerio de Economa y Competitividad through Plan Nacional (FIS2011-30465-C02-01), the Catalan Agencia de Gestió D'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca with SGR 2014-2016 and Laserlab-Europe grant agreement 284464.

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Author notes

  1. T. Paasch-Colberg

    Present address: Present addresses: TOPTICA Photonics AG, Lochhamer Schlag 19, Gräfelfing 82166, Germany,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    I. Pupeza, J. Zhang, N. Lilienfein, M. Seidel, N. Karpowicz, I. Znakovskaya, E. Fill, O. Pronin, F. Krausz & A. Apolonski

  2. ICFO – Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Castelldefels (Barcelona), 08860, Spain

    I. Pupeza, D. Sánchez & J. Biegert

  3. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    J. Zhang & Z. Wei

  4. Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Am Coulombwall 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    N. Lilienfein, M. Seidel, T. Paasch-Colberg, I. Znakovskaya, M. Pescher, W. Schweinberger, V. Pervak, E. Fill, O. Pronin, F. Krausz & A. Apolonski

  5. Department of Physics & Astronomy, King Saud University, PO Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    T. Paasch-Colberg & W. Schweinberger

  6. ICREA – Instituciò Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats, Barcelona, 08010, Spain

    J. Biegert

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Contributions

I.P., D.S., J.Z., N.L., M.S., N.K., T.P., W.S., V.P., E.F., O.P., Z.W., F.K., A.A. and J.B. conceived and designed the experiments. I.P., D.S., J.Z., N.L., M.S., T.P., I.Z., M.P., W.S. and V.P. performed the experiments. I.P., D.S., N.L., M.S., N.K., T.P., I.Z. and W.S. analysed the data. I.P., D.S., J.Z., N.L., M.S., N.K., T.P., I.Z., V.P., E.F., O.P., Z.W., F.K., A.A. and J.B. contributed materials and/or analysis tools. I.P., D.S., J.Z., N.L., M.S., N.K., T.P., M.P., W.S., E.F., F.K., A.A. and J.B. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to I. Pupeza.

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Pupeza, I., Sánchez, D., Zhang, J. et al. High-power sub-two-cycle mid-infrared pulses at 100 MHz repetition rate. Nature Photon 9, 721–724 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.179

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