Open AccessSub-15-cycle pulses from a single filament
Author(s) -
Daniel S. Steingrube,
Martin Kretschmar,
Dominik Hoff,
Emilia Schulz,
Thomas Binhammer,
P. Hansinger,
Gerhard G. Paulus,
Uwe Morgner,
Milutin Kovačev
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.024049
Subject(s) - protein filament , femtosecond , optics , carrier envelope phase , ultrashort pulse , pulse duration , femtosecond pulse shaping , multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan , laser , physics , pulse (music) , bandwidth limited pulse , pulse compression , filamentation , above threshold ionization , ionization , materials science , photoionization , ion , telecommunications , radar , quantum mechanics , detector , computer science , composite material
The temporal dynamics of ultrashort laser pulses undergoing filamentary propagation are investigated with a real-time stereographic above-threshold ionization (ATI) phasemeter. The experimental setup is capable of measuring the pulse duration as well as the carrier-envelope phase distribution of pulses originating from a femtosecond filament, which is either truncated in length or fully propagated. Truncation, by means of a semi-infinite gas cell, allows to elucidate the nonlinear evolution and temporal dynamics of ultrashort laser pulses as a function of the propagation length. We observe the formation of few-cycle pulses as well as temporal pulse splitting dynamics during the propagation of the pulse inside the filament. For the first time, we demonstrate the compression of 35 fs pulses down to a duration of sub-4 fs in a single femtosecond filament. This corresponds to sub-1.5 cycles of the electric field.