Double-pass multiple-plate continuum for high temporal contrast nonlinear pulse compression

TL;DR

The paper introduces a double-pass multiple-plate continuum architecture for nonlinear pulse compression, achieving broader bandwidth and improved temporal contrast with high efficiency and beam quality, demonstrated through a Yb-based laser pulse experiment.

Contribution

It presents a novel double-pass design for nonlinear pulse compression that enhances bandwidth and contrast without higher-order dispersion penalties.

Findings

Compressed 190-fs pulses to 20 fs with 75% throughput

Generated octave-spanning spectrum with a stronger blue tail

Achieved high beam homogeneity and Strehl ratio

Abstract

We propose a new architecture, double-pass multiple-plate continuum (DPMPC), for nonlinear pulse compression. In addition to smaller footprint, a double-pass configuration is designed to achieve substantial bandwidth broadening without incurring noticeable higher-order dispersion, thus improving the temporal contrast over those of traditional single-pass geometry when only quadratic spectral phase can be compensated. In our proof-of-concept experiment, 187~$\mu$J, 190-fs Yb-based laser pulse is compressed to 20~fs with high throughput (75%), high Strehl ratio (0.76) and excellent beam homogeneity by using DPMPC. Subsequently generated octave-spanning spectrum exhibits a significantly raised blue tail compared with that driven by pulses from a single-pass counterpart.