Chirped-pulse oscillators

15.02.2008 - 15.02.2011
Research funding project
Femtosecond pulses in the microjoule energy range, which are available directly from an oscillator without additional amplification, are of interest for a number of applications ranging from medicine and micro-machining to fundamental physics of light-matter interaction. The most promising approach to this aim is based on using a chirped-pulse solid-state oscillator in the positive dispersion regime providing the pulse energy scalability within a wide range of energy. The project aim is to develop a complete theory of the chirped-pulse oscillators concerning both classical and quantum aspects. It is planned to take into account the full set of factors affecting the ultrashort pulse dynamics in the positive dispersion regime: higher-order dispersion and dispersion distribution, dynamic gain saturation, time-resolved dynamics in the semiconductor saturable absorber and quantum noises of the entire oscillator. The wide range of the chirped-pulse oscillator characteristics will be explored: stability, energy scalability, chirped-pulse compressibility and coherence. The new infrared solid-state sources of the over-µJ femtosecond pulses based on Cr:Zinc-chalcogenide and Yb:YAG chirped-pulse oscillators will be developed. Both fundamental and practical output of penetration in the infrared range for such high-energy systems promises the break-through in semiconductor micro-machining, 3D photonic-crystal fabrication, high-order harmonics generation, metrology, femtosecond electron and attosecond optical pulse generation. The project implementation will be based on the combination of the modern computational techniques and the powerful analytical modeling with experimental verification in three different laser systems in the near- and mid-infrared. The analytical and numerical approach is based on the study of the generalized complex nonlinear Ginzburg-Landau equation outside the solitonic limit. The accumulated knowledge promises real break-through in the field of nonlinear and quantum optics as well as solid-state laser technology. The developed methods will be also applicable in the different branches of physics: quantum optics and laser physics, Bose-Einstein condensation, condensate-matter physics, non-equilibrium phenomena and nonlinear dynamics, quantum mechanics of self-organizing dissipative systems and quantum field theory.

People

Project leader

Institute

Grant funds

  • FWF - Österr. Wissenschaftsfonds (National) Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Research focus

  • Photonics: 60%
  • Telecommunication: 25%
  • Quantum many-body systems: 10%
  • Materials Characterization: 5%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
Laser PhysikLaser Physics
Nichtlineare OptikNonlinear Optics
Quanten OptikQuantum Optics
SolitonenSolitons

External partner

  • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Münc

Publications