Simultaneous compression, characterization and phase stabilization of GW-level 1.4 cycle VIS-NIR femtosecond pulses using a single dispersion-scan setup

We have temporally characterized, dispersion compensated and carrier-envelope phase stabilized 1.4-cycle pulses (3.2 fs) with 160 mu J of energy at 722 nm using a minimal and convenient dispersion-scan setup. The setup is all inline, does not require interferometric beamsplitting, and uses components available in most laser laboratories. Broadband minimization of third-order dispersion using propagation in water enabled reducing the compressed pulse duration from 3.8 to 3.2 fs with the same set of chirped mirrors. Carrier-envelope phase stabilization of the octave-spanning pulses was also performed by the dispersion-scan setup. This unprecedentedly simple and reliable approach provides reproducible CEP-stabilized pulses in the single-cycle regime for applications such as CEP-sensitive spectroscopy and isolated attosecond pulse generation. (C)2014 Optical Society of America