Hollow core fiber compression scheme for high-average/peak-power ytterbium laser technology and its application to secondary sources of long-wavelength radiation

高平均/峰值功率镱激光技术的空心光纤压缩方案及其在长波长辐射二次源中的应用

• 批准号: 529329-2018
• 负责人: Razzari, Luca
• 金额: $ 6.56万
• 依托单位: Institut national de la recherche scientifique
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=697844
• 关键词: Hollow; core; fiber; compression; scheme

The Photonics industry has been rapidly growing in the last decades also thanks to the remarkable advances achieved by laser technology. Nowadays, light sources delivering broadband, ultra-short (sub-picosecond) pulses are in high demand to explore next-generation optical technologies. The advent of mature ytterbium lasers brought this technology to an industrial level. Yet, extremely-short laser pulses on the order of few femtoseconds are not available directly from ytterbium lasers. Thus, a subsequent pulse compression step is required. This can be achieved by spectrally broadening the laser pulses in a hollow core fiber (HCF) filled with gas and compressing them to few optical cycle pulse duration with adequate optics. Our industrial partner few-cycle Inc., in collaboration with one of the PIs of this proposal, has developed a simple approach where the HCF is stretched between two optical mounts that is commercialized worldwide and has been installed in more than 10 foreign laboratories. few-cycle now wants to push the performance of its stretched HCF system, to explore yet unreached laser specifications for pulse compression of ytterbium sources, which nowadays represent the state-of-the-art in laser technology for industrial applications. In this three year project, we will investigate the compression of: (1) very low energy (down to 10µJ) femtosecond pulses delivered by high repetition rate ytterbium laser systems (100kHz to multi-MHz) and (2) very high energy (>50mJ) picosecond ytterbium pulses at 500Hz repetition rate. Furthermore, we will also exploit these compressed laser systems for generating ultrashort mid-infrared and THz pulses. To achieve these goals, two Master's students and a postdoctoral fellow will be recruited. These personnel will be supervised by the two PIs of the project (Drs. Luca Razzari and F. Légaré) and will closely interact with few-cycle. In addition, three members of the ALLS technical team will be involved in the investigation. The expected impact is to be found in the advanced knowledge regarding extreme pulse compression of high average/peak power lasers as well as in its implementation into marketable systems for ytterbium laser technology.

在过去的几十年里，由于激光技术取得了令人瞩目的进步，光子业也得到了迅速的发展。如今，提供宽带、超短(亚皮秒)脉冲的光源是探索下一代光学技术的高需求。成熟的Yb激光器的出现将这项技术带到了工业水平。然而，几飞秒量级的极短激光脉冲并不能直接从Yb激光获得。因此，需要后续的脉冲压缩步骤。这可以通过在充气的空芯光纤(HCF)中对激光脉冲进行频谱展宽，并在适当的光学条件下将其压缩到较短的光周期脉冲宽度来实现。我们的工业合作伙伴Null-Cycle Inc.与本提案的PI之一合作，开发了一种简单的方法，即在两个光学支架之间拉伸HCF，该方法已在全球范围内商业化，并已在10多个外国实验室安装。少数周期现在想要推动其加长的HCF系统的性能，探索尚未达到的脉冲压缩Yb源的激光规范，这代表了工业应用中激光技术的最先进水平。在这个为期三年的项目中，我们将研究：(1)由高重复频率Yb激光系统(100 kHz到多MHz)提供的极低能量(低至10微焦耳)飞秒脉冲和(2)极高能量(&gt；50mJ)500 Hz重复频率的极高能量(&gt；50mJ)微微秒Yb脉冲的压缩。此外，我们还将利用这些压缩激光系统来产生超短的中红外和太赫兹脉冲。为了实现这些目标，将招聘两名硕士研究生和一名博士后研究员。这些人员将由项目的两名个人主管(卢卡·拉扎里博士和F·L·加雷博士)监督，并将与少周期项目密切互动。此外，ALL技术团队的三名成员将参与调查。预期的影响将在关于高平均/峰值功率激光器的极端脉冲压缩的高级知识中找到，以及在将其落实到可销售的Yb激光技术系统中。