Few-cycle 10 µm multi-terawatt pulse self-compression in a gas-filled multi-pass cell: a numerical experiment

Michael G. Hastings, Paris Panagiotopoulos, Miroslav Kolesik, Victor Hasson, Sergei Tochitsky, Jerome V. Moloney

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

A gas-filled multi-pass cell is modeled to self-compress a 10 µm pulse to sub-100 fs duration while containing multi-terawatts of peak power. The motivation for modeling a source with the demonstrated power is for use in laser wakefield accelerators. The cell is filled with the second most abundant isotope of CO213CO2, which has a shifted dispersion/absorption relative to the gain medium generating the laser pulse, 12CO2. This allows for low-loss, long-distance propagation in the anomalous group velocity dispersion (GVD) Kerr medium, leading to self-compression of the initially 3.5 ps, 1 TW pulse. The pulse reaches a duration of 300 fs inside the cell before outcoupling through the anomalous GVD NaCl window, causing further compression to 87 fs and containing 8.35 TW peak power. By combining the self-compression of the gas-filled multi-pass cell with a post-compression anomalous GVD element, a hybrid compression scheme has been demonstrated.

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalJournal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics
Volume39
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2022

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Few-cycle 10 µm multi-terawatt pulse self-compression in a gas-filled multi-pass cell: a numerical experiment'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this