Carrier frequency tuning of few-cycle light pulses by a broadband attenuating mirror

摘要

We demonstrate the performance of a novel multilayer dielectric reflective thin-film attenuator capable of reshaping the super-octave spectrum of near-single-cycle visible laser pulses without deteriorating the phase properties of the reflected light. These novel broadband attenuating mirrors reshape in a virtually dispersion-free manner the incident spectrum such that the carrier wavelength of the reflected pulses shifts from similar to 700 nm (E-gamma = 1.77 eV) to similar to 540 nm (E-gamma = 2.25 eV) or beyond while maintaining their initial near-single-cycle pulse duration. This constitutes a viable approach to convert a number of established few-cycle ultrafast laser systems into sources with a selectable excitation wavelength to meet the requirements of single-color/multicolor high temporal resolution spectroscopic experiments. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America