Seven-octave high-brightness and carrier-envelope-phase-stable light source
Abstract
High-brightness sources of coherent and few-cycle-duration light waveforms with spectral coverage from the ultraviolet to the terahertz would offer unprecedented versatility and opportunities for a wide range of applications from bio-chemical sensing1 to time-resolved and nonlinear spectroscopy, and to attosecond light-wave electronics2,3. Combinations of various sources with frequency conversion4,5 and supercontinuum generation6-9 can provide relatively large spectral coverage, but many applications require a much broader spectral range10 and low-jitter synchronization for time-domain measurements11. Here, we present a carrier-envelope-phase (CEP)-stable light source, seeded by a mid-infrared frequency comb12,13, with simultaneous spectral coverage across seven optical octaves, from the ultraviolet (340 nm) into the terahertz (40,000 nm). Combining soliton self-compression and dispersive wave generation in an anti-resonant-reflection photonic-crystal fibre with intra-pulse difference frequency generation in BaGa2GeSe6, the spectral brightness is two to five orders of magnitude above that of synchrotron sources. This will enable high-dynamic-range spectroscopies and provide numerous opportunities in attosecond physics and material sciences14,15.
- Publication:
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Nature Photonics
- Pub Date:
- 2021
- DOI:
- 10.1038/s41566-020-00735-1
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2011.00949
- Bibcode:
- 2021NaPho..15..277E
- Keywords:
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- Physics - Optics
- E-Print:
- 4 figures