Laszlo Veisz

Generation of sub-three-cycle, 16 TW light pulses by using noncollinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

We present a two-stage noncollinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification system that generates 7.9 fs pulses containing 130 mJ of energy at an 805 nm central wavelength and 10 Hz repetition rate. These 16 TW light pulses are compressed to within 5% of their Fourier limit and are carefully characterized by the use of home-built pulse diagnostics. The contrast ratio before the main pulse has been measured as 10(-4), 10(-8), and 10(-11) at t=-3.3 ps, t=-5 ps, and t=-30 ps, respectively. This source allows for experiments in a regime of relativistic light-matter interactions and attosecond science.

Intense 1.5-cycle near infrared laser waveforms and their use for the generation of ultra-broadband soft-x-ray harmonic continua

We demonstrate sub-millijoule-energy, sub-4?fs-duration near-infrared laser pulses with a controlled waveform comprised of approximately 1.5 optical cycles within the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of their temporal intensity profile. We further demonstrate the utility of these pulses for producing high-order harmonic continua of unprecedented bandwidth at photon energies around 100?eV. Ultra-broadband coherent continua extending from 90?eV to more than 130?eV with smooth spectral intensity distributions that exhibit dramatic, never-before-observed sensitivity to the carrier-envelope offset (CEO) phase of the driver laser pulse were generated. These results suggest the feasibility of sub-100-attosecond XUV pulse generation for attosecond spectroscopy in the 100?eV range, and of a simple yet highly sensitive on-line CEO phase detector with sub-50-ms response time.

GeV-scale electron acceleration in a gas-filled capillary discharge waveguide

We report experimental results on laser-driven electron acceleration with low divergence. The electron beam was generated by focussing 750 mJ, 42 fs laser pulses into a gas-filled capillary discharge waveguide at electron densities in the range between 10 18 and 10 19 cm 3 . Quasi-monoenergetic electron bunches with energies as high as 500 MeV have been detected, with features reaching up to 1 GeV, albeit with large shot-to-shot fluctuations. A more stable regime with higher bunch charge (20-45 pC) and less energy (200-300 MeV) could also be observed. The beam divergence and the pointing stability are around or below 1 mrad and 8 mrad, respectively. These findings are consistent with self-injection of electrons into a breaking plasma wave.

Dispersion management for a sub-10-fs, 10 TW optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier

We report the amplification of three-cycle, 8.5 fs optical pulses in a near-infrared noncollinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) up to energies of 80 mJ. Improved dispersion management in the amplifier by means of a combination of reflection grisms and a chirped-mirror stretcher allowed us to recompress the amplified pulses to within 6% of their Fourier limit. The novel ultrabroad, ultraprecise dispersion control technology presented in this work opens the way to scaling multiterawatt technology to even shorter pulses by optimizing the OPCPA bandwidth.

Sub-fs electron pulses for ultrafast electron diffraction

We present a new concept for an electron gun generating subrelativistic electron pulses with a duration down to the attosecond range. It is based on a cylindrical RF cavity (a so-called pill-box cavity) oscillating in its TM010 eigenmode with a photocathode triggered by a fs-laser pulse. Injecting electrons at an appropriate phase of the RF cycle compensates for their initial velocities and time delays and makes the electrons arrive at a target in a sub-fs temporal window. Such electron pulses will allow nuclear motion and electronic dynamics to be studied on an attosecond time scale.

Hybrid dc–ac electron gun for fs-electron pulse generation

We present a new concept of an electron gun for generating subrelativistic few-femtosecond (fs) electron pulses. The basic idea is to utilize a dc acceleration stage combined with an RF cavity, the ac field of which generates an electron energy chirp for bunching at the target. To reduce space charge (SC) broadening the number of electrons in the bunch is reduced and the gun is operated at a megahertz (MHz) repetition rate for providing a high average number of electrons at the target. Simulations of the electron gun were carried out under the condition of no SC and with SC assuming various numbers of electrons in the bunch. Transversal effects such as defocusing after the dc extraction hole were also taken into account. A detailed analysis of the sensitivity of the pulse duration to various parameters was performed to test the realizability of the concept. Such electron pulses will allow significant advances in the field of ultrafast electron diffraction.

Absolute charge calibration of scintillating screens for relativistic electron detection

We report on new charge calibrations and linearity tests with high-dynamic range for eight different scintillating screens typically used for the detection of relativistic electrons from laser-plasma based acceleration schemes. The absolute charge calibration was done with picosecond electron bunches at the ELBE linear accelerator in Dresden. The lower detection limit in our setup for the most sensitive scintillating screen (KODAK Biomax MS) was 10 fC/mm(2). The screens showed a linear photon-to-charge dependency over several orders of magnitude. An onset of saturation effects starting around 10-100 pC/mm(2) was found for some of the screens. Additionally, a constant light source was employed as a luminosity reference to simplify the transfer of a one-time absolute calibration to different experimental setups.

Approaching the full octave: Noncollinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplification with two-color pumping

We present a new method to broaden the amplification range in optical parametric amplification toward the bandwidth needed for single cycle femtosecond pulses. Two-color pumping of independent stages is used to sequentially amplify the long and short wavelength parts of the ultrabroadband seed pulses. The concept is tested in two related experiments. With multi-mJ pumping pulses with a nearly octave spanning spectrum and an uncompressed energy of 3 mJ are generated at low repetition rate. The spectral phase varies slowly and continuously in the overlap region as shown with 100 kHz repetition rate. This should allow the compression to the Fourier limit of below 5 fs in the high energy system.

Novel method for characterizing relativistic electron beams in a harsh laser-plasma environment.

Particle pulses generated by laser-plasma interaction are characterized by ultrashort duration, high particle density, and sometimes a very strong accompanying electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Therefore, beam diagnostics different from those known from classical particle accelerators such as synchrotrons or linacs are required. Easy to use single-shot techniques are favored, which must be insensitive towards the EMP and associated stray light of all frequencies, taking into account the comparably low repetition rates and which, at the same time, allow for usage in very space-limited environments. Various measurement techniques are discussed here, and a space-saving method to determine several important properties of laser-generated electron bunches simultaneously is presented. The method is based on experimental results of electron-sensitive imaging plate stacks and combines these with Monte Carlo-type ray-tracing calculations, yielding a comprehensive picture of the properties of particle beams. The total charge, the energy spectrum, and the divergence can be derived simultaneously for a single bunch.

Ultra-high-contrast few-cycle pulses for multipetawatt-class laser technology.

We report the generation of few-cycle multiterawatt light pulses with a temporal contrast of 10(10), when measured as close as 2 ps to the pulses peak. Tens of picoseconds before the main pulse, the contrast value is expected to spread much beyond the measurement limit. Separate measurements of contrast improvement factors at different stages of the laser system indicate that real contrast values may reach 10(19) and 10(14), when measured 50 and 25 ps before the pulses peak, respectively. The combination of the shortest pulse duration and the highest contrast renders our system a promising front-end architecture for future multipetawatt laser facilities.