High harmonic generation with long-wavelength few-cycle laser pulses

We report the extension of hollow-core fibre pulse compression to longer wavelengths. High-energy multi-cycle infrared pulses are generated via optical parametric amplification and subsequently broadened in the fibre. 2.5-cycle pulses at the Signal wavelength (1.4 μm) and 1.6-cycle pulses at the Idler wavelength (1.8 μm) in the sub-millijoule regime have been generated. New compression schemes can be applied at 1.8 μm and beyond. In this manner, 1.6-cycle carrier envelope phase stable pulses were generated by linear propagation in the anomalous dispersion regime of bulk glass which surprisingly enables compression below its third-order dispersion limit. Furthermore, a dispersion-free way of controlling the carrier envelope phase is demonstrated. Moreover, we experimentally confirm the increase in high-harmonic cut-off energy with driving laser wavelength and demonstrate the beneficial effect of few-cycle pulses which enable higher saturation intensities on target compared to multi-cycle pulses. It will be an ideal tool for future synthesis of isolated attosecond pulses in the sub-keV regime. With this laser source, we revealed for the first time multi-electron effects in high harmonic generation in xenon. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)