Sub-30-fs high-power laser based on a solid multi-pass cell and application for high flux high harmonic generation

Area of Science:

• Laser Physics
• Ultrafast Optics
• High-Power Lasers

Background:

• Conventional solid multi-pass cells (MPCs) have limitations in handling high-energy and high-power laser pulses.
• Femtosecond lasers require advanced pulse compression techniques for specialized applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce an improved water-cooled solid MPC for pulse compression of high-power femtosecond lasers.
• To demonstrate the capability of the compressed pulses for driving high-order harmonics generation (HHG).

Main Methods:

• Utilized a water-cooled solid multi-pass cell (MPC) for pulse compression.
• Employed a 186 W high-power femtosecond Yb fiber laser operating at a 1 MHz repetition rate.
• Applied the compressed pulses to drive high-order harmonics generation (HHG).

Main Results:

• Achieved pulse compression from 225 fs down to 28.3 fs.
• Obtained an output power of 161 W, corresponding to a peak power of 5.35 GW.
• Generated XUV light spanning 20.47 eV to 46.95 eV with a maximum photon flux of 1.07 × 10^11 photons/s.

Conclusions:

• The improved water-cooled MPC effectively compresses high-power femtosecond laser pulses.
• The generated XUV light is suitable for time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.
• This advancement enables new possibilities in ultrafast spectroscopy and high-field physics.