High-performance ultrafast pulse compression in the visible spectral range for extreme nonlinear optics at kHz-MHz repetition rates

Abstract

We demonstrate a remarkably effective single-stage compression technique for ultrafast pulses in the visible electromagnetic spectrum using second-harmonic pulses at 515 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛derived from a 1030 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 Yb-based femtosecond regenerative amplifier. By employing an advanced multi-plate scheme, we achieve more than fourfold compression from 180 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 to 40 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 with an extremely high spectral broadening efficiency of over 95%, and a temporal compression efficiency exceeding 75%. In addition, our method leverages a low nonlinearity medium to attain the shortest pulse durations for a single compressor while maintaining a superb spatial beam quality with 97% of the energy confined in the main lobe of the Arie disk. Moreover, our technique enhances the temporal pulse quality at 515 𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 without generating substantial femtosecond-to-picosecond pulse pedestals. The resulting intense visible laser pulses with excellent spatio-temporal parameters and high repetition rate of 100 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 to 1 𝑀𝑀𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 open up new frontiers for extreme nonlinear optics and ultrabright EUV and X-ray high-harmonic generation using short VIS wavelength.