Physics

Laser

Optics

Materials science

Picosecond

Optics Letters

In this work, we demonstrate postcompression of 1.2 ps laser pulses to 13 fs via gas-based multipass spectral broadening. Our results yield a single-stage compression factor of about 40 at 200 W in-burst average power and a total compression factor <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mo>&gt;</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>90</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> at reduced power. The employed scheme represents a route toward compact few-cycle sources driven by industrial-grade Yb:YAG lasers at high average power.

Postcompression of picosecond pulses into the few-cycle regime