Ultrafast lasers articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The laser pulses that drive most laser wakefield accelerators have wavelengths near 1 micrometer and peak power > 100 terawatts. Here, the authors drive plasma wakes with 10 micrometer, 2-terawatt pulses, yielding relativistic electron beams with a collimated, narrow-energy-bandwidth component.

    • R. Zgadzaj
    • , J. Welch
    •  & M. C. Downer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present a fast mid-infrared hyperspectral chemical imaging technique that uses chirped pulse upconversion of sub-cycle pulses at the image plane, with lateral resolution of 15 µm and an adjustable field of view and large spectral range. They demonstrate identification and mapping different components in a microfluidic device, plant cell, and mouse embryo.

    • Yue Zhao
    • , Shota Kusama
    •  & Takao Fuji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gratings are used for pulse compression and stretching in chirped pulse amplification (CPA) or optical parametric CPA methods. Here the authors demonstrate ultra-broadband gold gratings that can compress single-cycle pulses with powers around 100 petawatts.

    • Yuxing Han
    • , Zhaoyang Li
    •  & Jianda Shao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studies on the fractional Schrödinger equation (FSE) remain mostly theoretical, due to the lack of materials supporting fractional dispersion or diffraction. Here, the authors indirectly realized the FSE using two programmable holograms acting as an optical Lévy waveguide.

    • Shilong Liu
    • , Yingwen Zhang
    •  & Ebrahim Karimi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving high output powers in dual-comb sources is important for possible applications like deep UV high resolution spectroscopy. Here the authors demonstrate a fully passive scheme of generating a set of high-power dual-combs from a thin-disc gain medium.

    • Kilian Fritsch
    • , Tobias Hofer
    •  & Oleg Pronin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding photo-physics giving rise to quantum beating oscillations in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites aids their applications in spintronics and quantum information science. Here, authors demonstrate that quantum beatings observed in single crystal perovskite at cryogenic temperatures are originating from positive and negative trions.

    • Uyen N. Huynh
    • , Ye Liu
    •  & Z. Valy Vardeny

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Attosecond pulse generation needs improvements both in terms of tunability and photon flux for next level attosecond experiments. Here the authors show how to control the HHG emission and its spectral-temporal characteristics by driving the IAP generation with synthesized sub-cycle optical pulses.

    • Yudong Yang
    • , Roland E. Mainz
    •  & Franz X. Kärtner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Producing pulses in the mid-IR often requires bulky sources and has been inaccessible with compact and versatile quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). Here, the authors demonstrate actively mode-locked, mid-IR QCL operation at room temperature.

    • Johannes Hillbrand
    • , Nikola Opačak
    •  & Benedikt Schwarz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Short-wavelength infrared pulses are important for applications in strong field physics and nonlinear optics. Here the authors show multi-stage optical parametric amplification of sub-cycle SWIR pulses with carrier-envelope phase stability.

    • Yu-Chieh Lin
    • , Yasuo Nabekawa
    •  & Katsumi Midorikawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Modelocked lasers are typically modeled using the Haus master equation which, albeit powerful, provides only a limited description in certain parameter regimes. The authors introduce another master equation formalism to describe laser modelocking that accounts for coherent effects and overcomes these limitations.

    • Auro M. Perego
    • , Bruno Garbin
    •  & Germán J. de Valcárcel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phase-coherent transfer of optical frequencies over long open-air paths is necessary in photonic applications. Here the authors demonstrate the parallel transmission of multiple optical carriers in air up to 18 km using a stable near-infrared frequency comb.

    • Hyun Jay Kang
    • , Jaewon Yang
    •  & Seung-Woo Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical generation of terahertz radiation is needed for many applications, but gaining high efficiency is still a challenge. The authors report a method to overcome dispersion effects in interfering chirp pulses used for THz pulse production by tuning their relative spectral phase, enabling 0.6 mJ of THz energy output.

    • Spencer W. Jolly
    • , Nicholas H. Matlis
    •  & Andreas R. Maier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser-matter interaction has been intensively studied in equilibrium states, but irreversible processes in a highly nonequilibrium state at nanoscales remains elusive due to experimental challenges. Here, Ihm et al. image heterogeneous melting of gold nanoparticles with nanometer and picosecond resolution.

    • Yungok Ihm
    • , Do Hyung Cho
    •  & Changyong Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser fields can be tuned to probe electronic motion in atoms and molecules. Here the authors ionize Na atoms using bichromatic pulses to generate electron wave packets of crescent-shaped and 7-fold rotational symmetry which do not follow the field symmetry but are determined by multiphoton interference.

    • S. Kerbstadt
    • , K. Eickhoff
    •  & M. Wollenhaupt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Space charge effects can distort the results of photoelectron spectroscopic measurements, and usually limit the allowable photon flux in an experiment. Here, the authors present an 18.4 MHz repetition rate high harmonic source in the 25–60 eV range, with a large count rate improvement over state-of-the-art attosecond setups under identical space charge conditions.

    • T. Saule
    • , S. Heinrich
    •  & I. Pupeza

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neutron beams are useful studying fundamental physics problems, fusion process and material properties. Here the authors use intense laser irradiation of deuterated nanowire array targets to create high energy density plasmas capable of efficient generation of ultrafast neutron pulses.

    • Alden Curtis
    • , Chase Calvi
    •  & Jorge J. Rocca

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Attosecond pulses are useful in exploring processes involving ultrafast electron motion in atomic and molecular systems. Here the authors discuss a method to characterize the complex time-varying polarization state of broadband attosecond pulses by using asymmetry in photoelectron spectra.

    • Álvaro Jiménez-Galán
    • , Gopal Dixit
    •  & Misha Ivanov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The non-equilibrium dynamics of correlated electron materials are still poorly understood. Here, the authors use time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to show that carrier multiplication is important in initial non-equilibrium dynamics of 1T-TiSe2and depends on the size of the energy gap.

    • S. Mathias
    • , S. Eich
    •  & M. Aeschlimann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical solitons are pulses that propagate undistorted. Here, the authors demonstrate a class of soliton arising from the interaction of self-phase modulation with quartic dispersion, rather than with quadratic dispersion as occurs in conventional solitons.

    • Andrea Blanco-Redondo
    • , C. Martijn de Sterke
    •  & Chad Husko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical parametric amplification is a process that amplifies the power of laser pulses. Here, Schmidt and colleagues demonstrate that performing this amplification in the frequency domain rather than the optical domain could lead to higher power outputs.

    • Bruno E. Schmidt
    • , Nicolas Thiré
    •  & François Légaré

  • Article |

    The time-resolved characterization of laser pulses is important in particular for the development of optical characterization techniques at ultrashort timescales. Here the authors develop a scheme that is able to characterize the electric-field evolution of femtosecond laser pulses.

    • Yutaka Nomura
    • , Hideto Shirai
    •  & Takao Fuji

  • Article |

    Molecules in intense laser fields have enhanced multiple ionization rates, caused by the ionic core and laser fields acting on the part of the molecule in the up-field. Here, direct proof of this model is presented by studying the instantaneous effect of the field direction during double ionization in ArXe.

    • J. Wu
    • , M. Meckel
    •  & R. Dörner

  • Article |

    Understanding ultrafast demagnetisation is key to manipulating magnetic structures on fast timescales, yet laser sources limit the attainable spatial resolution. Here, a soft X-ray high harmonic source enables a high temporal and spatial resolution study of domain demagnetisation in [Co/Pt]30multilayer films.

    • Boris Vodungbo
    • , Julien Gautier
    •  & Jan Lüning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stable, ultrahigh repetition rate optical clocks are critical for applications in high-speed communications, metrology and microchip computing. Pecciantiet al.present a mode-locked laser based on an integrated microcavity, with repetition rate exceeding 200 GHz and narrow linewidth pulses.

    • M. Peccianti
    • , A. Pasquazi
    •  & R. Morandotti

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