High-power multi-megahertz source of waveform-stabilized few-cycle light

What is it about?

This publication is about a novel type of a femtosecond laser oscillator (i.e. a laser without any amplifiers). Femtosecond is the time scale where molecular motions happen. Therefore, femtosecond light sources are the ultimate tool to track these motions in real time and to manipulate them. High-power implies high data acquisition rates which is particularly useful for tracking rare events. A pulse duration of only a few optical cycles results in the highest time resolution and in a tight temporal confinement of power within a light pulse. This allows triggering extreme nonlinear optical effects in materials. For a precise control of these nonlinear processes one needs the highest degree of pulse reproducibility and therefore a stable electromagnetic field waveform.

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Why is it important?

For the first time, the thin-disk technology, which is a power-scalable laser architecture, was combined with the generation of waveform-stabilized few-cycle light pulses.

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