Work

Nonlinear Shaping in the Picosecond Gap

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Lightwave pulse shaping in the picosecond regime has remained unaddressed because it resides beyond the limits of state-of-the-art techniques, due to either its inherently narrow spectral content or fundamental speed limitations in electronic devices. The so-called picosecond shaping gap hampers progress in all areas correlated with time-modulated light–matter interactions, such as photoelectronics, health and medical technologies, and energy and materials sciences. We report on a novel nonlinear method to simultaneously frequency-convert and adaptably shape the envelope of light wave packets in the picosecond regime by balancing spectral engineering and nonlinear conversion in solid-state nonlinear media, without requiring active devices. We capture computationally the versatility of this methodology across a diverse set of nonlinear conversion chains and initial conditions. We also provide experimental evidence of this framework producing picosecond-shaped, ultranarrowband, near-transform-limited light pulses from broadband, femtosecond input pulses, paving the way toward programmable lightwave shaping at gigahertz-to-terahertz frequencies.

Source: Ultrafast Science

DOI: 10.34133/ultrafastscience.0112

Authors: Randy Lemons, Jack Hirschman, Hao Zhang, Charles Durfee, Sergio Carbajo

Institutions: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, University of California, Los Angeles, Colorado School of Mines

Language: English

Topic: Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: diamond