1-MHz operation of 1.7-cycle multiple plate compression at 35-W average output power

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the generation of 1.7-cycle, high-energy pulses at 1 MHz using a two-stage continuum compression technique on Yb-laser pulses, achieving ultrashort durations and high beam quality for advanced attosecond applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel two-stage multiple plate continuum compression method for high-repetition-rate ultrashort pulses with optimized thermal management.

Findings

Achieved 1.7-cycle, 35-μJ pulses at 1 MHz.

Compressed pulses from 184 fs to 5.7 fs using simple dispersion compensation.

Produced high-quality beams with M^2 < 1.5 and high spatial-spectral homogeneity.

Abstract

We generated 1.7-cycle and 35-$\mu$J pulses at a 1-MHz repetition rate by using two-stage multiple plate continuum compression of Yb-laser pulses with 80-W average input power. By adjusting the plate positions with careful consideration of the thermal lensing effect due to the high average power, we compressed the output pulse with a 184-fs initial duration to 5.7 fs by using only group-delay-dispersion compensation. This pulse achieved a sufficient beam quality ($M^2$ < 1.5) reaching a focused intensity over 10$^{14}$ W/cm$^2$ and a high spatial-spectral homogeneity (98%). Our study holds promise for a MHz-isolated-attosecond-pulse source for advanced attosecond spectroscopic and imaging technologies with unprecedentedly high signal-to-noise ratios.