Multiple solid-plates compression for two-color excitation of air plasma emitting ultrabroadband infrared waves

Abstract

Abstract We compressed 35 fs titanium sapphire laser pulses into 20 fs pulses by multiple-plate compression for two-color excitation of air plasma that emitted ultrabroadband infrared waves with a spectral range from the far-infrared to near-infrared. We used five 0.1 mm thick fused-silica plates for spectral broadening, and a pair of broadband chirped mirrors for chirp compensation. This result, reducing the required pulse energy compared with the case of hollow-fiber compression, is a major step toward all-solid infrared spectroscopy.