Peer-Review Publications

Nonperturbative electron-positron pair creation (the Schwinger effect) is studied based on the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism in 1+1 dimensions. An ab initio calculation of the Schwinger effect in the presence of a simple space- and time-dependent electric field pulse is performed for the first time, allowing for the calculation of the time evolution of observable quantities such as the charge density, the particle number density or the total number of created particles. We predict a new self-bunching effect of charges in phase space due to the spatial and temporal structure of the pulse.

The femtosecond dynamics of the electrons in aluminum after an intense extreme ultraviolet pulse is investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. Transient distributions of the conduction band electrons show an almost thermalized, low-energy part and a high-energy tail. Constructing emission spectra from these data, we find excellent agreement with measurements. The radiative decay mainly reflects the colder part of the distribution, whereas the highly excited electrons dominate the bremsstrahlung spectrum. For the latter, we also find good agreement between predicted and measured energy scales.

The angular distribution of energetic electrons emitted from thin foil targets irradiated by intense, picosecond laser pulses is measured as a function of laser incidence angle, intensity, and polarization. Although the escaping fast electron population is found to be predominantly transported along the target surface for incidence angles ≥ 65°, in agreement with earlier work at lower intensities, rear-surface proton acceleration measurements reveal that a significant electron current is also transported longitudinally within the target, irrespective of incident angle. These findings are of interest to many applications of laser-solid interactions, including advanced schemes for inertial fusion energy.

We report on the transverse refluxing of energetic electrons in mass-limited foil targets irradiated with high intensity (1 × 10^19  W cm^−2), picosecond laser pulses. It is shown experimentally that the maximum energies of protons accelerated by sheath fields formed at the rear and at the edges of the target increase with decreasing target size. This is due to the modification of the sheath field by the energetic electrons which spread laterally along the target surface and reflect from the edges. In addition, it is shown that this transverse refluxing of energetic electrons can be used to tailor the spatial-intensity distribution of the proton beam by engineering the shape and size of the target.

We demonstrate a new fiber based concept to filter azimuthally or radially polarized light. This concept is based on the lifting of the modal degeneracy that takes place in high numerical aperture fibers. In such fibers, the radially and azimuthally polarized modes can be spectrally separated using a fiber Bragg grating. As a proof of principle, we filter azimuthally polarized light in a commercially available fiber in which a fiber Bragg grating has been written by a femtosecond pulsed laser.

The process of high harmonic generation allows for coherent transfer of infrared laser light to the extreme ultraviolet spectral range opening a variety of applications. The low conversion efficiency of this process calls for optimization or higher repetition rate intense ultrashort pulse lasers. Here we present state-of-the-art fiber laser systems for the generation of high harmonics up to 1 MHz repetition rate. We perform measurements of the average power with a calibrated spectrometer and achieved µW harmonics between 45 nm and 61 nm (H23-H17) at a repetition rate of 50 kHz. Additionally, we show the potential for few-cycle pulses at high average power and repetition rate that may enable water-window harmonics at unprecedented repetition rate.

A robust nonoptical carrier-envelope phase (CEP) locking feedback loop, which utilizes a measurement of the left–right asymmetry in the above-threshold ionization (ATI) of Xe, is implemented, resulting in a significant improvement over the standard slow-loop f-to-2f technique. This technique utilizes the floating average of a real-time, every-single-shot CEP measurement to stabilize the CEP of few-cycle laser pulses generated by a standard Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplified laser system using a hollow-core fiber and chirped mirror compression scheme. With this typical commercially available laser system and the stereographic ATI method, we are able to improve short-term (minutes) CEP stability after a hollow-core fiber from 450 to 290 mrad rms and long-term (hours) stability from 480 to 370 mrad rms.

Polarization gating is used to extend a real-time, single-shot, carrier-envelope phase (CEP) measurement, based on high-energy above-threshold ionization in xenon, to the multi-cycle regime. The single-shot CEP precisions achieved are better than 175 and 350 mrad for pulse durations up to 10 fs and 12.5 fs, respectively, while only 130 μJ of pulse energy are required. This opens the door to study and control of CEP-dependent phenomena in ultra-intense laser-matter interaction using optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based tera- and petawatt class lasers.

High-speed, single-shot velocity-map imaging (VMI) is combined with carrier-envelope phase (CEP) tagging by a single-shot stereographic above-threshold ionization (ATI) phase-meter. The experimental setup provides a versatile tool for angle-resolved studies of the attosecond control of electrons in atoms, molecules, and nanostructures. Single-shot VMI at kHz repetition rate is realized with a highly sensitive megapixel complementary metal-oxide semiconductor camera omitting the need for additional image intensifiers. The developed camera software allows for efficient background suppression and the storage of up to 10^24 events for each image in real time. The approach is demonstrated by measuring the CEP-dependence of the electron emission from ATI of Xe in strong (≈ 10^13 W/cm2) near single-cycle (4 fs) laser fields. Efficient background signal suppression with the system is illustrated for the electron emission from SiO_2 nanospheres.

Passive mode-locking in fiber lasers is investigated by numerical and experimental means. A non-distributed scalar model solving the nonlinear Schrödinger equation is implemented to study the starting behavior and intra-cavity dynamics numerically. Several operation regimes at positive net-cavity dispersion are experimentally accessed and studied in different environmentally stable, linear laser configurations. In particular, pulse formation and evolution in the chirped-pulse regime at highly positive cavity dispersion is discussed. Based on the experimental results a route to highly energetic pulse solutions is shown in numerical simulations.

We develop worldline numerical methods, which combine string-inspired with Monte Carlo techniques, for the computation of the vacuum polarization tensor in inhomogeneous background fields for scalar QED. The algorithm satisfies the Ward identity exactly and operates on the level of renormalized quantities. We use the algorithm to study for the first time light propagation in a spatially varying magnetic field. Whereas a local derivative expansion applies to the limit of small variations compared to the Compton wavelength, the case of a strongly varying field can be approximated by a derivative expansion for the averaged field. For rapidly varying fields, the vacuum-magnetic refractive indices can exhibit a nonmonotonic dependence on the local field strength. This behavior can provide a natural limit on the self-focussing property of the quantum vacuum.

The propagation of optical vortices nested in broadband femtosecond laser beams was studied both numerically and experimentally. Based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the dynamics of different multiple-vortex configurations with varying topological charge were modelled in self-focussing and self-defocussing Kerr media. We find a similar behavior in both cases regarding the vortex–vortex interaction. However, the collapsing background beam alters the propagation for a positive nonlinearity. Regimes of regular and possibly stable multiple filamentation were identified this way. Experiments include measurements on pairs of filaments generated in a vortex beam on an astigmatic Gaussian background with argon gas as the nonlinear medium. Spectral broadening of these filaments leads to a supercontinuum which spans from the visible range into the infrared. Recompression yields < 19 fs pulses. Further optimization may lead to much better recompression.

The influence of parasitic processes on the performance of ultra-broadband noncollinear optical parametric amplifiers (NOPA’s) is investigated for walk-off and non-walk-off compensating configurations. Experimental results with a white-light–seeded NOPA agree well with numerical simulations. The same model shows that 10% of the output energy of an amplified signal can be transferred into a parasitic second harmonic of the signal. These findings are supported by quantitative measurements on a few-cycle NOPA, where a few percent of the signal energy is converted to its second harmonic in the walk-off compensating case. This effect is reduced by an order of magnitude in the non-walk-off compensating configuration. A detailed study of the phase-matching conditions of the most common nonlinear crystals provides guidelines for designing NOPA systems.

We report on the performance of a system employing a multi-layer coated mirror creating circularly polarized light in a fully reflective setup. With one specially designed mirror we are able to create laser pulses with an ellipticity of more than ε = 98% over the entire spectral bandwidth from initially linearly polarized Titanium:Sapphire femtosecond laser pulses. We tested the homogeneity of the polarization with beam sizes of the order of approximately 10 cm. The damage threshold was determined to be nearly 400 times higher than for a transmissive quartz-wave plate which suggests applications in high intensity laser experiments. Another advantage of the reflective scheme is the absence of nonlinear effects changing the spectrum or the pulse-form and the scalability of coating fabrication to large aperture mirrors.

We present a tomographic characterization of gas jets employed for high-intensity laser-plasma interaction experiments where the shape can be non-symmetrically. With a Mach-Zehnder interferometer we measured the phase shift for different directions through the neutral density distribution of the gas jet. From the recorded interferograms it is possible to retrieve 3-dimensional neutral density distributions by tomographic reconstruction based on the filtered back projections. We report on criteria for the smallest number of recorded interferograms as well as a comparison with the widely used phase retrieval based on an Abel inversion. As an example for the performance of our approach, we present the characterization of nozzles with rectangular openings or gas jets with shock waves. With our setup we obtained a spatial resolution of less than 60 μm for an Argon density as low as 2 × 10^17 cm^−3.

The time history of the local ion kinetic energy in a stagnating plasma was determined from Doppler-dominated line shapes. Using independent determination of the plasma properties for the same plasma region, the data allowed for inferring the time-dependent ion temperature, and for discriminating the temperature from the total ion kinetic energy. It is found that throughout most of the stagnation period the ion thermal energy constitutes a small fraction of the total ion kinetic energy; the latter is dominated by hydrodynamic motion. Both the ion hydrodynamic and thermal energies are observed to decrease to the electron thermal energy by the end of the stagnation period. It is confirmed that the total ion kinetic energy available at the stagnating plasma and the total radiation emitted are in balance, as obtained in our previous experiment. The dissipation time of the hydrodynamic energy thus appears to determine the duration (and power) of the K emission.

The relative yield and momentum distributions of all multiply charged atomic ions generated by a short (30 fs) intense (10^14 - 5 × 10^18 W/cm2) laser pulse are investigated using a Monte Carlo simulation. We predict a substantial shift in the maximum (centroid) of the ion-momentum distribution along the laser polarization as a function of the absolute phase. This effect should be experimentally detectable with currently available laser systems even for relatively long pulses, such as 25 - 30 fs. In addition to the numerical results, we present semianalytical scaling for the position of the maximum.

The impact of avoided crossings (also known as anti-crossings) in single and double-clad large mode area Photonic Crystal Fibers (PCFs) suitable for high-power laser systems is evaluated numerically. It is pointed out that an inappropriate choice of pump core diameter, bending radius and/or index depression may lead to avoided crossings that manifest themselves in unwanted deformations of the output beam.

The combination of high-field physics with nano-plasmonics has proven to be feasible in producing high harmonics of intense laser radiation from noble gases, assisted by the field-enhancement effect in the proximity of metallic nano-antennas. However, the intensity region where harmonics can be generated without irreversible damage to these delicate structures is rather narrow. We explore the damage threshold of gold targets that exhibit regular structures on a nanoscopic scale, either explicitly resonant to the used laser frequency, or off-resonance. These are compared to values for bulk material in order to gain insight into the role of plasmonic resonances in the response of solid targets on intense laser radiation. We find that the presence of such a resonance lowers the threshold fluence (J/cm^2) where global structural damage sets in by about an order of magnitude. Statistical deviations either in local pulse energy of the damage inducing laser radiation or in the exact resonance behaviour of singular structures prove to be limited. These results should serve as a guideline for future experiments working near the damage threshold of more sophisticated antenna designs.

We report on the observation and experimental characterization of a threshold-like onset of mode instabilities, i.e. an apparently random relative power content change of different transverse modes, occurring in originally single-mode high-power fiber amplifiers. Although the physical origin of this effect is not yet fully understood, we discuss possible explanations. Accordingly, several solutions are proposed in this paper to raise the threshold of this effect.

We demonstrate nonlinear pulse compression based on recently introduced highly coherent broadband supercontinuum (SC) generation in all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber (ANDi PCF). The special temporal properties of the octave-spanning SC spectra generated with 15 fs, 1.7 nJ pulses from a Ti:Sapphire oscillator in a 1.7 mm fiber piece allow the compression to 5.0 fs high quality pulses by linear chirp compensation with a compact chirped mirror compressor. This is the shortest pulse duration achieved to date from the external recompression of SC pulses generated in PCF. Numerical simulations in excellent agreement with the experimental results are used to discuss the scalability of the concept to the single-cycle regime employing active phase shaping. We show that previously reported limits to few-cycle pulse generation from compression of SC spectra generated in conventional PCF possessing one or more zero dispersion wavelengths do not apply for ANDi PCF.

One- and few-electron ions traditionally serve as an important testing ground for fundamental atomic structure theories and for the effects of QED, relativity and electron correlation. In the domain of high nuclear charges, new opportunities open up for precise testing and consolidating of the present understanding of the atomic structure in the regime of extreme electromagnetic fields. In this review, the current progress in experimental investigations of the heaviest H- and He-like systems at GSI Darmstadt is presented together with the planned future developments.

We describe a novel method to improve the temporal intensity contrast (TIC) between the main pulse and prepulses in a high-power chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser system. Pre- and post-pulses originating from the limited extinction ratio of the polarization gating equipment are suppressed by carefully adjusting the round-trip times of the regenerative amplifiers (RAs) with respect to the oscillator. As a result, leaking pulses from earlier or later round-trips in the RAs are hidden below the temporal shape of the main pulse. The synchronization can easily be controlled by a contrast measurement on a picosecond time scale using a third-order cross-correlator that enables a sub-mm precise adjustment of the cavity lengths. Finally, a method based on spectral interference is introduced that can be used for a fine-adjustment of the cavity lengths for the daily operation, making this new method easy to implement into existing laser systems.

Electron acceleration by laser-driven plasma waves is capableof producing ultra-relativistic, quasi-monoenergetic electron bunches with orders of magnitude higher accelerating gradients and much shorter electron pulses than state-of-the-art radio-frequency accelerators. Recent developments have shown peak energies reaching into the GeV range and improved stability and control over the energy spectrum and charge. Future applications, such as the development of laboratory X-ray sources with unprecedented peak brilliance or ultrafast time-resolved measurements critically rely on a temporal characterization of the acceleration process and the electron bunch. Here, we report the first real-time observation of the accelerated electron pulse and the accelerating plasma wave. Our time-resolved study allows a single-shot measurement of the (5.8_(−2.1))^(+1.9) fs electron bunch full-width at half-maximum ((2.5_(−0.9))^(+0.8) fs root mean square) as well as the plasma wave with a density-dependent period of 12–22 fs and reveals the evolution of the bunch, its position in the surrounding plasma wave and the wake dynamics. The results afford promise for brilliant, sub-ångström-wavelength ultrafast electron and photon sources for diffraction imaging with atomic resolution in space and time.

We report on a Yb:YAG Innoslab laser amplifier system for generation of subpicsecond high energy pump pulses for optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) at high repetition rates. Pulse energies of up to 20 mJ (at 12.5 kHz) and repetition rates of up to 100 kHz were attained with pulse durations of 830 fs and average power in excess of 200 W. We further investigate the possibility to use subpicosecond pulses to derive a stable continuum in a YAG crystal for OPCPA seeding.