David M. Gaudiosi

Efficient reflection grisms for pulse compression and dispersion compensation of femtosecond pulses

Efficient reflection grisms for pulse-compression and material-dispersion compensation have been designed and demonstrated in a 40 fs, 300 microJ, 5 kHz downchirped pulse amplification system for the first time to our knowledge. A grism design for 800 nm femtosecond laser pulse dispersion compensation applications is realized by using standard, commercial diffraction gratings.

11-W average power Ti:sapphire amplifier system using downchirped pulse amplification

We demonstrate a high-power laser system that employs a new scheme in which pulses with negative chirp are amplified and then recompressed by dispersion in a block of transparent material. This scheme has significant advantages for amplification of intermediate energy pulses at high average power, including insensitivity to small misalignments of the pulse compressor, elimination of compressor gratings and their thermal loading issues, low compressor energy and bandwidth throughput losses, and a simplified optical design. Using this scheme, we demonstrate what we believe is the highest-average-power single-stage Ti:sapphire amplifier system with 11-W compressed output.

Multi-kilohertz repetition rate Ti:sapphire amplifier based on down-chirped pulse amplification

We present a novel ultrafast multipass laser amplifier design optimized for sub-millijoule output energy and capable of being operated at repetition rates exceeding 40 kHz. This ti:sapphire based system makes use of a grism based stretcher, a cryogenically cooled ti:sapphire crystal and an astigmatically compensated multipass amplifier design that allows for pumping with significantly lower pump pulse energies than has been demonstrated to date. We also make use of the downchirped pulse amplification scheme to minimize loss in the pulse compression process. Preliminary experiments demonstrate an output pulse energy of 290 muJ at 10 kHz and 270 muJ at 15 kHz with a pulse duration of 36 fs.

Design and Fabrication of Efficient Reflection Grisms for Pulse Compression and Dispersion Compensation

Efficient reflection prisms for pulse compression and material-dispersion compensation have been designed and demonstrated in a CPA system. Designs for 800-nm and 1030-nm ultrafast applications are realized using off-the-shelf diffraction gratings.

Tabletop Lensless Imaging Using Coherent High Harmonic Beams

We present the first demonstration of lensless imaging using coherent high harmonic beams. This coherent imaging technique avoids traditional diffractive optics, and is transparently extendable to shorter wavelengths without aberrations.

Grism based stretcher/compressor system for amplified, femtosecond kilohertz lasers

We demonstrate a simple and efficient grism based stretcher/compression system for the first time. 40 fs, 300 muJ pulses are generated at 5 kHz using this unique amplifier design.

Enhanced high harmonic generation in Xe, Kr and Ar using a capillary discharge

We demonstrate a significant extension of the harmonic cutoff in xenon, krypton and argon ions using a capillary discharge, up to 160 eV, 170 eV and 275 eV respectively.

Nonlinear optics for high-order frequency conversion: applied attosecond science

We show that it is possible to use of a train of counterpropagating light pulses to enhance the coherent upconversion of intense femtosecond lasers into the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) region of the spectrum. This all optical quasi-phase-matching uses interfering beams to scramble the quantum phase of the generated EUV light, suppressing the contribution of out-of-phase emission. Selective enhancement of up to 600X is observed at photon energies of ~70 eV using argon gas and ~ 150 eV using helium gas.

Grism Based Stretcher/Compressor System for Amplified, Femtosecond Kilohertz Lasers

We demonstrate a simple and efficient grism based stretcher/compression system. 40 fs, 300 µJ pulses are generated at 5 kHz using this unique amplifier design.

Enhanced High Harmonic Generation from Ions Using a Capillary Discharge Plasma

We demonstrate a significant increase of the high harmonic cutoff in xenon, krypton and argon ions using a pre-ionized plasma created with a capillary discharge.