Few-cycle vortex beam generated from self-compression of mid-infrared femtosecond vortex beam in thin plates

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates a method to generate high-peak-power, few-cycle vortex beams in the mid-infrared range through self-compression in thin plates, preserving vortex properties and enabling ultrafast applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel thin-plate scheme for self-compression of femtosecond vortex beams, achieving high efficiency and peak power while maintaining vortex characteristics.

Findings

Femtosecond vortex beam compressed from 90 fs to 15.1 fs

Conversion efficiency of 91.5% achieved

Peak power reaches 0.18 TW

Abstract

We demonstrate theoretically that few-cycle vortex beam with subterawatt peak power can be generated by self-compression of mid-infrared femtosecond vortex beam using the thin-plate scheme. The 3 {\mu}m femtosecond vortex beam with input duration of 90 fs is compressed to 15.1 fs with the vortex characteristics preserved. The conversion efficiency is as high as 91.5% and the peak power reaches 0.18 TW. The generation of the high-peak-power few-cycle vortex beam is owing to the proper spatiotemporal match by this novel scheme, where the spectrum is broadened enough, the negative group velocity dispersion can compensate the positive chirp induced by nonlinear effects, and multiple filamentation is inhibited for the keeping of the vortex characteristics. Our work will help to generate isolated attosecond vortices, opening a new perspective in ultrafast science.