Multipass cell compression

Post-compression techniques are essential to shorten the pulse duration of commercially available laser systems. The multi-pass cell (MPC) has emerged as an efficient tool for the post-compression of Ytterbium lasers that provide high average power but that are limited in pulse duration to few hundreds of femtoseconds. We develop MPCs specifically designed to bring the Ytterbium laser technology to the few-cycle regime, which is of relevance for ultrafast and strong-field physics applications. In particular, we develop schemes exploiting dispersion-engineered mirrors, allowing for significantly enhanced spectral broadening compared to conventional MPC schemes. The front-end of our high-repetition rate laboratory combines a 50 W, 200 kHz Ytterbium laser in combination with a compact single-stage, dispersion-engineered MPC delivering 15 fs pulses with an overall transmission > 90%.

This work is supported by the Helmholtz-Lund International Graduate School (HELIOS) and the HIGHLIGHT PIER seed project PIF-2021-03.

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