Peer-Review Publications

The spectral distribution of the 1s2s 1S0→1s2 1S0 two-photon decay of He-like tin was measured using a novel approach at the gas-jet target of the ESR storage ring. Relativistic collisions of Li-like projectiles with low-density gaseous matter have been exploited to selectively populate the desired 1s2s state. Compared to conventional techniques, this approach results in a substantial gain in statistical and systematic accuracy, which allowed us to achieve for the first time a sensitivity to relativistic effects on the two-photon decay spectral shape as well as to discriminate the measured spectrum for Sn from theoretical shapes for different elements along the He-isoelectronic sequence.

We propose a new catalysis mechanism for nonperturbative vacuum electron-positron pair production, by superimposing a plane-wave x-ray probe beam with a strongly focused optical laser pulse, such as is planned at the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) facility. We compute the absorption coefficient arising from vacuum polarization effects for photons below threshold in a strong electric field. This setup should facilitate the (first) observation of this nonperturbative QED effect with planned light sources such as ELI yielding an envisioned intensity of order 10^26 W/cm^2.

We report on a compact Gigawatt peak power OPCPA system which is pumped by the second harmonic of an Yb-doped fiber amplifier and seeded by a cavity dumped Ti:Sapphire oscillator. Picosecond pump pulses for the OPCPA are generated by spectral filtering and directly amplified to 1 mJ pulse energy in several fiber amplifiers, without the need of chirped pulse amplification. Since no stretcher and compressor is required, the pump laser is very compact and easy to operate. The two stage optical parametric amplifier delivers 35 fs pulses with 53 microJ pulse energy and 1.1 GW peak power at 40 kHz repetition rate. Additionally, the scaling potential of this approach is discussed.

Many physical processes such as bremsstrahlung, synchrotron radiaton and radiative recombination produce polarized X-rays. However, only a few facilities are able to deliver tunable monoenergetic high quality beams of almost completely polarized X-rays to the user. We used radiative electron capture (REC) into the K-shell of bare xenon to produce tunable and highly linearly polarized X-rays in a storage ring environment (Fig. 1) which we confirmed by a dedicated compton polarimeter.

We present a Q-switched microchip laser emitting 1064-nm pulses as short as 100 ps synchronized to a cavity dumped femtosecond laser emitting 800-nm pulses as short as 80 fs. The synchronization is achieved by presaturating the saturable absorber of the microchip laser with femtosecond pulses even though both lasers emit at widely separated wavelengths. The mean timing jitter is 40 ps and thus considerably shorter than the pulse duration of the microchip laser.

We present the first observation of the 1s 2p^3P_2 → 1s 2s^3S_1 transition in He-like uranium. The experiment was performed at the internal gas-jet target of the ESR storage ring at GSI exploiting a Bragg crystal spectrometer and a germanium solid-state detector. Using the 1s^(2) 2p^2P_(3/2) → 1s^(2) 2s^2S_(1/2) transition in Li-like uranium as reference and the deceleration capabilities of the ESR storage ring, we obtained the first evaluation of the energy of an intra-shell transition for a He-like heavy ion.

Beam lifetimes of stored U^(28+) ions with energies between 10 and 180  MeV/u were measured in the heavy ion synchrotron SIS18 and in the experimental storage ring (ESR) of the GSI accelerator facility. By using the internal gas jet target of the ESR, it was possible to obtain projectile ionization cross sections for collisions with H_2 and N_2 from the lifetime data. The experimental cross sections are compared to theoretical data predicted by the n-body classical-trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) method of Olson et al. and to calculations of Shevelko et al. using the LOSS-R code. In addition, both theoretical approaches are probed by using the resulting cross sections as input parameters for the STRAHLSIM code, which models the beam losses and, consequently, the lifetimes in the heavy ion synchrotron SIS18. Both the cross section measurement and the SIS18 lifetime study indicate that the LOSS-R code cross sections are in better agreement with the experimental results than the n-body CTMC calculations.

We present a simple and robust pulse shaping device based on coherent pulse stacking. The device is embedded in a polarisation maintaining step index fiber. An input pulse is sent through a fiber optical circulator. Up to four pulse replicas are reflected by fiber Bragg gratings and interfere at the output. Temperature control allows tuning of the relative pulse phases of the sub-pulses. Additionally fine tuning of the sub-pulse amplitudes is demonstrated. We experimentally generated 235 ps and 416 ps long flattop pulses with rising and falling edges shorter than 100 ps. In contrast to other pulse shaping techniques the presented setup is robust, alignment free, provides excellent beam quality and is also suitable for pulse durations up to several nanoseconds.

Low temperature superconducting quantum interference devices (LTS SQUIDs) are used to make precision measurements of electromagnetic fields in applications ranging from biomedicine to high energy physics. We have previously described an LTS SQUID-based device for nuclear physics which employs the Cryogenic Current Comparator principle (CCC). The CCC consists of a high-performance LTS DC SQUID system, a toroidal pick-up coil, and a meander-shaped superconducting niobium shield. Theoretical investigations show that as external noise decreases, improvements in performance depend on the properties of the ferromagnetic core material embedded in the pick-up coil. Here we present the temperature- and frequency-dependence of several candidate ferromagnetic and nanocrystalline materials. We discuss these results in light of the optimization of the CCC sensor performance.

Recent advances in the development of 2D microstrip detectors open up new possibilities for hard x-ray spectroscopy, in particular for polarization studies. These detectors make ideal Compton polarimeters, which enable us to study precisely the polarization of hard x-rays. Here, we present recent results from measurements of Radiative Electron Capture into the K-shell of highly-charged uranium ions. The experiments were performed with a novel 2D Si(Li) Compton polarimeter at the Experimental Storage Ring at GSI. Stored and cooled beams of U^(91+) and U^(92+) ions, with kinetic energies of 43 MeV/u and 96 MeV/u respectively, were crossed with a hydrogen gasjet. The preliminary data analysis shows x-rays from the K-REC process, emitted perpendicularly to the ion beam, to be strongly linearly polarized.

Particle and photon polarization phenomena occurring in collisions of relativistic ions with matter have recently attracted particular interest. Investigations of the emitted characteristic x-ray and radiative electron capture radiation has been found to be a versatile tool for probing our present understanding of the dynamics of particles in extreme electromagnetic fields. Owing to the progress in x-ray detector technology, in addition, accurate measurements of the linear polarization for hard x-ray photons as well as the determination of the polarization plane became possible. This new diagnostic tool enables one today to derive information about the polarization of the ion beams from the photon polarization features of the radiative electron capture process.

A dedicated Si(Li) Compton polarimeter combining energy and time resolution with a large detection area of 64 × 64 mm^2 and a two dimensional position resolution of 2 mm has been used for the first time to study the polarization of x‐rays emitted via radiative electron capture (REC) into the K and L‐shell of heavy highly charged ions. First data for the collision system 96.6 MeV/u U^(92+) → H_2 are presented. The angular distribution of the Compton scattered photons inside the detector indicates that both K‐ and L‐REC processes lead to the emission of strongly linearly polarized light.

The two-photon 2E1 transition from the singlet 2s state of heliumlike tin was measured. An alternative experimental approach was adopted in the present investigation where the two-photon emission results from the decay of the 2s state by selective K-shell ionization of Li-like tin ions in relativistic collisions with a low-Z gaseous target, which allowed for a measurement of the undistorted two-photon spectral shape. The measured 2E1 energy distribution was compared with fully relativistic calculations, which predict a Z dependence of the distribution. The preliminary results indicate the best agreement with the relativistic many body calculations for tin, and thus confirm the sensitivity on Z. Detailed data analysis is still in progress.

We report on a significant improvement of the total bandwidth amplified in an optical parametric process. By pumping a parametric amplifier with a broadband pump, we demonstrate amplification of a supercontinuum whose spectrum expands over nearly an octave ranging from less than 600 nm up to 1200 nm. Our amplifier stage is set to provide amplification at degeneracy in the quasi-collinear configuration with a temporally as well as angularly dispersed pump.

We present a high peak power optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) seeded by a cavity dumped Ti:Sapphire oscillator. A frequency doubled high power Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier is pumping the device. Temporal synchronization of the pump pulses is done via soliton generation in a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. This soliton is fiber amplified and spectrally filtered in several fiber amplifiers. A simple birefringent pulse shaper generates a flat-top temporal pump pulse profile. Direct amplification of these pulses in large mode area fibers without using a stretcher and compressor provides significantly reduced complexity. For the first time to our knowledge broadband amplification around 800 nm central wavelength is demonstrated in BIB(3)O(6) (BIBO) crystals. The stretched Ti:Sapphire oscillator pulses are amplified up to a pulse energy of 25 microJ. Recompression with a grating compressor yields 50.7 fs pulses with 16.2 microJ pulse energy.

A simple, robust and compact pulse compressor for a high-repetition rate high-peak power fiber chirped pulse amplification system is presented. We use noble-gas-filled hollow fibers for spectral broadening of the optical pulses via self-phase modulation. Subsequent compression with chirped mirrors shortens the pulses by more than a factor of 10. Pulses shorter than 70 fs with pulse energies of the order of 100 µ J have been obtained resulting in a peak power up to 1GW at 30.3kHz. Additionally, nonlinear polarization rotation has been used for temporal pulse cleaning during the nonlinear compression at 30.3kHz and 100kHz, respectively.

A high-average-power Yb-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplification system is presented. Compressed average power of 325 W at 40 MHz repetition rate corresponding to 8.2 muJ pulse energy is extracted. Compression in a highly efficient dielectric-grating-based compressor yields pulses as short as 375 fs, resulting in 22 MW of peak power.

We review the main challenges and give design guidelines for high-peak-power high-average-power fiber-based chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) systems. It is clearly pointed out that the lowest order fiber nonlinearity (NL), namely the self-phase modulation, limits the scalability of high-energy ultrashort pulse fiber amplifiers. Therefore, a distinguished difference arises between the consequences of accumulated nonlinear phase originating from the pulse envelope and initial weak modulations, resulting in a strong recommendation to operate an amplification system as linearly as possible in order to generate high-contrast pulses. Low-NL rare-earth-doped fibers, such as the recently available designs of photonic crystal fibers, are the key element for successful peak power scaling in fiber laser systems. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis and optimization of the extraction characteristics in connection with the accumulated nonlinear phase in such extreme fiber dimensions. Consequently, millijoule pulse energy femtosecond pulses at repetition rates in the 100 kHz range have already been demonstrated experimentally in a Yb-fiber-based CPA system that has even further scaling potential.

Degenerated optical parametric amplification (OPA) is a well known technique to achieve broadband amplification necessary to generate ultrashort pulses. Here we present a parametric amplifier pumped by the frequency doubled output of a state-of-the-art fiber chirped pulse amplification system (FCPA) delivering mJ pulse energy at 30 kHz repetition rate and 650 fs pulse duration. The parametric amplifier and the FCPA system are both seeded by the same Yb:KGW oscillator. Additional spectral broadening of the OPA seed provides enough bandwidth for the generation of ultrashort pulses. After amplification in two 1mm BBO crystals a pulse energy of 90 microJ is yielded at 30 kHz. Subsequent compression with a sequence of chirped mirrors shortens the pulses to 29 fs while the pulse energy is as high as 81 µJ resulting in 2 GW of peak power.

We present a high peak power degenerated parametric amplifier operating at 1030 nm and 97 kHz repetition rate. Pulses of a state-of-the art fiber chirped-pulse amplification (FCPA) system with 840 fs pulse duration and 410 µJ pulse energy are used as pump and seed source for a two stage optical parametric amplifier. Additional spectral broadening of the seed signal in a photonic crystal fiber creates enough bandwidth for ultrashort pulse generation. Subsequent amplification of the broadband seed signal in two 1 mm BBO crystals results in 41 µJ output pulse energy. Compression in a SF 11 prism compressor yields 37 µJ pulses as short as 52 fs. Thus, pulse shortening of more than one order of magnitude is achieved. Further scaling in terms of average power and pulse energy seems possible and will be discussed, since both concepts involved, the fiber laser and the parametric amplifier have the reputation to be immune against thermo-optical effects.

Ionization processes of heavy ions colliding with atoms and ions at relativistic energies are considered. Formulaes for calculating ionization cross sections in the Born approximation using momentum-transfer representation without regard to magnetic interactions are given as well as those in dipole and impulse approximations. Using the LOSS-R [25] and HERION codes, calculations of relativistic cross sections are performed for H-like multiply changed ions with the nuclear charge Z approximate to 80-90, colliding with neutral atoms and for multiply changed uranium ions colliding with protons and carbon atoms. The results of calculations are compared with available experimental data and calculations performed by other authors.

We report on an ytterbium-doped single-transverse-mode rod-type photonic crystal fiber that combines the advantages of low nonlinearityand intrinsic polarization stability. The mode-field-area of the fundamental mode is as large as 2300 µm2. An output power of up to 163 W with adegree of polarization better than 85% has been extracted from a simple fiber laser setup without any additional polarizing element within the cavity than the fiber itself. The beam quality has been characterized by a M2 value of 1.2. The single-polarization window ranges from 1030 to 1080 nm, hence possesses an excellent overlap with the gain profile of ytterbium-doped silica fibers. To the best of our knowledge this fiber design has the largest mode-field-diameter ever reported for polarizing or even polarization maintaining rare-earth-doped double-clad fibers.

We report on a high repetition rate noncollinear optical parametric amplifier system (NOPA) based on a cavity dumped Ti:Sapphire oscillator providing the signal, and an Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier pumping the device. Temporally synchronized NOPA pump pulses are created via soliton generation in a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. This soliton is fiber amplified to high pulse-energies at high repetition rates. The broadband Ti:Sapphire laser pulses are parametrically amplified either directly or after additional spectral broadening. The approach of fiber-based pump-pulse generation from a femtosecond laser, that emits in the spectral region of NOPA-gain, offers enhanced long-term stability and pulse quality compared to conventional techniques, such as signal pulse generation from a high power laser system via filamentation in bulk media. The presented system produces high-energy ultra-short pulses with pulse-durations down to 15.6 fs and pulse-energies up to 500 nJ at a repetition rate as high as 2 MHz.

We report on an ytterbium-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) system delivering millijoule level pulse energy at repetition rates above 100 kHz corresponding to an average power of more than 100 W. The compressed pulses are as short as 800 fs. As the main amplifier, an 80 µm core diameter short length photonic crystal fiber is employed, which allows the generation of pulse energies up to 1.45 mJ with a B-integral as low as 7 at a stretched pulse duration of 2 ns. A stretcher-compressor unit consisting of dielectric diffraction gratings is capable of handling the average power without beam and pulse quality distortions. To our knowledge, we present the highest pulse energy ever extracted from fiber based femtosecond laser systems, and a nearly 2 orders of magnitude higher repetition rate than in previously published millijoule-level fiber CPA systems.

The choice of optimum phase-matching conditions for noncollinear optical parametric amplifiers is usually made on the basis of the linear spectral dispersion characteristics of the anisotropic nonlinear crystal. However, for high-peak-power operation, where pump depletion is involved, it is shown that the tolerance of the parametric gain with regard to k-vector mismatch is to change the optimum phase-matching parameters. Our calculations show that, with the revised parameters, an enhancement in peak power approaching 50% could be achieved.