Single-cycle pulse compression in dense resonant media

authored by

Rostislav Arkhipov, Mikhail Arkhipov, Ayhan Demircan, Uwe Morgner, Ihar Babushkin, Nikolay Rosanov

Abstract

We propose here a new approach for compression and frequency up-conversion of short optical pulses in the regime of extreme nonlinear optics in optically dense absorbing media, providing an alternative route to attosecond-scale pulses at high frequencies. This method is based on dynamics of self-induced transparency (SIT) pulses of nearly single cycle duration, leading to single-cycle-scale Rabi oscillations in the medium. The sub-cycle components of an incident pulse behave as separate SIT-pulses, approaching each other and self-compressing, resulting in the threefold compression in time and frequency up-conversion by the same factor. As we show, the scheme can be cascaded, staying at the subsequent stage with nearly the same compression and up-conversion ratio. In this way, as our simulations show, after only few micrometers of propagation, a 700 nm wavelength single cycle pulse can be compressed to a pulse of 200 attoseconds duration located in XUV frequency range.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Quantum Optics
PhoenixD: Photonics, Optics, and Engineering - Innovation Across Disciplines

External Organisation(s)

Saint Petersburg State University
RAS - Ioffe Physico Technical Institute

Type

Article

Journal

Optics express

Volume

29

Pages

10134-10139

No. of pages

6

ISSN

1094-4087

Publication date

29.03.2021

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.419862 (Access: Open)