The High-Repetition-rate laser-driven Gas-based High-order Harmonic Generation (HR GHHG) beamlines of the Extreme Light Infrastructure Attosecond Light Pulse Source (ELI ALPS) have started their operation in the recent years. Both beamlines, one designed for gas-phase targets – the HR GHHG Gas beamline –, and one for condensed-phase samples – the HR GHHG Condensed beamline –, now provide high-flux, extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation with pump-probe capabilities at 100 kHz repetition rate. The HR GHHG Cond beamline is equipped with a time-compensated XUV monochromator, allowing for tuning the spectral properties while maintaining short, close to Fourier-limited pulse duration in the femtosecond regime. Cutting-edge experimental end stations are also available, for example a Reaction Microscope and a NanoESCA device. Both beamlines are past their first commissioning user experiments. In this presentation the capabilities along with some recent developments and latest experiments will be presented for these two unique attosecond sources.
One of the most widespread and reliable techniques for spectral phase characterization of optical elements is spectrally resolved interferometry (SRI), which utilizes a two-arm interferometer illuminated by a broadband light source and a spectrometer to record the generated spectral fringes, which are usually evaluated by using Fourier-transform-based methods. One detriment to these methods, that they require high spectral resolution. Considering that most of the spectrometers in the mid-infrared (MIR) region have typically a few nm spectral resolution, we propose two alternative methods for measurements in this spectral region, second harmonic assisted SRI (SH-SRI) and dual-band SRI. The SH-SRI method utilizes second harmonic generation, which allows for high-precision phase retrieval by shifting the detection range from the MIR regime to the near-infrared, where high-resolution spectrometers are commercially available. The dual-band SRI method has the capabilities of the SH-SRI, while simultaneously probing the optical element at the second harmonic frequency band as well. Using the Fourier transform method, the acquired phase can be obtained from a single interferogram at both frequency bands simultaneously, which effectively doubles the measurement bandwidth compared to the original SRI and the SH-SRI without increasing the requirements on the bandwidth and the resolution of the spectrometer. To determine the performance of these new schemes, we have measured the spectral phase shift of several optical windows with both SH-SRI and dual-band SRI. Their accuracy was significantly higher than that of the conventional SRI technique that relied on low-resolution spectrometers operating in the MIR region. We used the SH-SRI technique also to verify the phase performance of custom-made MIR dispersive mirrors, designed with specific dispersion characteristics. With the dispersive mirrors, we were able to compress our spectrally broadened pulses to 19.6 fs (<2 cycles) at 3170 nm central wavelength with 8.2 W average power.
Dispersion measurements on a birefringent hollow-core (HC-800-02) and a solid-core (LMA-PM-5) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) are presented using a windowed Fourier-transform (WFT) spectral interferometric method. We investigate the optimal value of the spectral window function of the WFT method to reach the highest accuracy in the dispersion measurement. This requires the knowledge of the precise position of the polarization axes of the fibers. In order to determine the position of the polarization axes we have developed a method based on analyzing the WFT signals, which were obtained from a series of interferograms at different excitation ratios of the polarization modes of the PCFs.
A laboratory exercise has been developed in the frames of a new course called “Advanced undergraduate laboratory in femtosecond optics”, which aims to study the dependence of the dispersion of a prism pair on the positions of the prisms. For the dispersion measurement we chose a relatively simple technique, called white light spectral interferometry. The prism pair consisting of two identical fused silica prisms was placed in the sample arm of a Michelson-interferometer illuminated with a tungsten halogen lamp. The interferograms were observed with a low resolution spectrometer in order to have a wide detection range (200-1100 nm). Measurements were performed by adjusting the optical path length in the second prism. The data was evaluated with the cosine-function fit method. Using the formalism of Fork the phase derivatives were theoretically calculated as well. The dependence of the dispersion coefficients on the displacement of the second prism agree well with the measurements. Using white light is advantageous as its broad wavelength range facilitates the retrieval of the spectral phase with high precision in a wide range. Furthermore, white light sources are relatively low-cost and safe in contrast to ultrashort laser sources.
A detailed investigation regarding the applicability of the stationary phase point method in higher-order dispersion measurement is presented. The cases of dominant second-, joint second- and third-, dominant third- and dominant fourthorder dispersion were studied using simulations. We have come to the conclusion that the stationary phase point method is suitable for dispersion retrieval when the group-delay dispersion or the third-order dispersion term is the dominant, however, it became inaccurate in the presence of dominant fourth-order dispersion as the stationary phase point spread. The results obtained by simulation were compared with measurements performed on a second-order reduced, third-order dominant fiber sample. We found good agreement between simulations and the measurements.
Dispersion properties of a 37 cm long photonic crystal fibre were studied using spectral interferometry. The interferograms were evaluated by the conventional and the windowed Fourier-transform method, as well as other commonly used ones, such as the cosine function fit, the stationary phase point and the minima-maxima methods. It is shown that from the five techniques the conventional Fourier-transform method provided the dispersion coefficients with the highest accuracy, and both Fourier-transform techniques could detect phase jumps in the vicinity of the absorption valleys seen in the transmission spectrum of the fibre. We present a novel simple evaluation procedure based on Fouriertransform for a quick retrieval of the spatial and temporal pulse shape after the fibre. The time delay between the higher and the fundamental transversal modes was also measured by the Fourier-transform method.
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