Power Scaling of Enhancement Cavities for Nonlinear Optics

Enhancement cavities are passive optical resonators in which continuous-wave laser radiation or pulses of a frequency comb are coherently overlapped, allowing for a power and intensity scaling of up to several orders of magnitude. A prominent application is the table-top generation of bright, laser-like radiation in spectral regions where direct laser action is inefficient or not available at all, via intracavity nonlinear optical processes. However, to exploit the full capacity of this technique further progress is needed.

This thesis covers central problems of enhancement cavities, such as finding limitations in scaling the circulating power, measuring cavity parameters with high accuracy, tailoring transverse modes and coupling out radiation generated in the cavity. Unprecedented intracavity laser powers were demonstrated, surpassing previous results by an order of magnitude. As an application, harmonics of the fundamental 1040-nm radiation up to the 21st order are generated. Besides reporting these fine experimental results, the thesis provides an excellent introduction into the physics of enhancement cavities, supported by more than 140 references.

Provides a brilliant introduction into the physics of enhancement cavities and presents new insights in attosecond physics and frequency comb spectroscopy Nominated as an outstanding contribution by Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Ioachim Pupeza studied Electrical Engineering and Pure Mathematics at the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, and spent one year as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. He completed his PhD in Experimental Laser Physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (LMU, Germany) and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ, Germany) in 2011. After a stay at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, Spain) as a postdoctoral researcher, he returned as a research group leader at the MPQ and LMU and completed his Habilitation in 2020. Dr. Pupeza's current research focus lies on the development of tools and techniques for the controlled generation and measurement of broadband light waveforms, on the level of the individual oscillations of their electric field, and with sensitivity and precision approaching the fundamental limits.

Inhalt
Theoretical Background.- Objectives of the Experiment and Technological Challenges.- Experimental Setup and Results.- Outlook.