All-optical sampling of few-cycle infrared pulses using tunneling in a solid

Abstract

Recent developments in ultrafast laser technology have resulted in novel few-cycle sources in the mid-infrared. Accurately characterizing the time-dependent intensities and electric field waveforms of such laser pulses is essential to their applications in strong-field physics and attosecond pulse generation, but this remains a challenge. Recently, it was shown that tunnel ionization can provide an ultrafast temporal “gate” for characterizing high-energy few-cycle laser waveforms capable of ionizing air. Here, we show that tunneling and multiphoton excitation in a dielectric solid can provide a means to measure lower-energy and longer-wavelength pulses, and we apply the technique to characterize microjoule-level near- and mid-infrared pulses. The method lends itself to both all-optical and on-chip detection of laser waveforms, as well as single-shot detection geometries.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 11, 2021
Source ID
10.1364/prj.420916

Entities

People

  • Ahmed Yousif
  • John E Beetar
  • Jonathan Nesper
  • M Nrisimhamurty
  • Michael Chini
  • Shima Gholam Mirzaeimoghadar
  • Yangyang Liu

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • National Science Foundation
  • United States Department of Energy
  • University of Central Florida

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy