Ultrafast optical technologies at high repetition rates

In ultrafast science, the quest for optimal experimental conditions calls for “better, stronger and more stable” light sources.

Concessions are often made between strength and speed as the most powerful systems can only fire once or twice a day while high repetition rate lasers provide reduced energies.

In attoscience, and for photon-hungry pump-probe experiments, high repetition rates allow many readouts to study fundamental processes with atoms and electrons. Many applications also require high intensities and time resolution.

Unfortunately, high repetition rate sources only deliver above 100s femtoseconds pulses, thus failing to directly find a use in ultrafast measurements.

The project aims at developing new approaches in ultrafast optics to investigate electronic processes beyond the current optical driver abilities.

It combines spectral broadening via the novel multi-pass cell method with soliton dynamics and domain-engineered materials to uncover new efficient optical drivers for high harmonic generation, time-resolved photoemission, and enable the next generation ultrafast experiments in material science.

This constitutes an interdisciplinary effort between laser technology, material engineering and electron instrumentation that will span four years.

The project will start with nonlinear pulse post-compression cornerstone developments, then explore novel nonlinear optical schemes, and help gain new insight into, e.g., electronic structure in topological materials.