FIELDTECH: Technology for next-generation characterization of optical fields

Project Information

FIELDTECH

Grant agreement ID: 101034661

DOI

10.3030/101034661

Project closed

EC signature date 25 February 2021

Start date 1 April 2021

End date 31 March 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 100 000,00

Coordinated by

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FIELDTECH (FIELDTECH: Technology for next-generation characterization of optical fields)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2022-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In conventional optoelectronics, the response of devices is largely limited by the intrinsic electronic properties of semiconducting devices, such as, the charge carrier lifetime and mobility of materials, and the applied DC or AC electric fields. In lightwave-driven optoelectronics, charge carrier motions in solids can be generated and steered at petahertz frequencies (1 PHz=10^15 Hz) by the fast oscillating electric field of an ultrashort laser pulse. Such operation bandwidth goes far beyond conventional optoelectronic technologies operating at below 100 GHz. Stable, and controllable electric field waveforms of ultrashort light pulses, which we aim to characterize with FIELDTECH, are a prerequisite for the development of petahertz optoelectronics. To overcome limitations of technology currently on the market, our objective is the development of simple, fast, and low-cost technology for the temporal characterization of optical fields. We aim at a small and user-friendly field characterization device that is robust with respect to long-term drifts of the laser source parameters. By optimizing the single-shot detection sensitivity and spectral bandwidth we will facilitate its application to high repetition rate laser sources of 100 kHz and beyond.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The performed work include a technical development and the development of a marketing strategy. In the technical development, which was severely impacted by delays due to the pandemic, a new device was designed and has been tested with a few-cycle 10 kHz Ti:sapphire laser system at 750 nm and a few-cycle 100 kHz Yb:YAG based optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) laser system at 2 microns. We also worked on the systems integration of the device, which includes encapsulation of the device for electromagnetic shielding and noise reduction, the integration of fast electronic components for data acquisition, and programming a software with well-designed user interface (UI) for CEP retrieval and readout. During the project execution, we realized that to prepare the commercial plan for launching a spinoff company under the circumstance of a delayed technical development would be nearly impossible. We therefore implemented the backup plan designed in the project proposal, which was to license the IP of our technique to an existing company for further commercialization processes. This has been achieved with UltraFast Innovations GmbH (UFI) as our commercial partner. They are meanwhile continuing the full device integration for commercialization, even beyond the funding period of this project. The project has therefore been successful in bringing new technology to the market.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The f-2f technique with different detection methods are widely explored and exploited by researchers and by companies. Several commercial products are already available on the market, and are also used as CEP stabilization method in different laser systems. However, they still suffer from several drawbacks. For instance, 1) the detection capabilities, in terms of the laser repetition rate and wavelength range, are usually limited by the detectors attached, while fast detectors especially for near-IR or MIR are usually very costly; 2) the extension of detection range from visible to near-IR are still not so straightforward where the nonlinear optics in the f-2f need to be adapted as well; 3) they cannot measure the absolute CEP phase. The Stereo-ATI phase meter could compensate some of the drawbacks in f-2f technique; however, it is a rather bulky and sophisticated apparatus consisting of several expensive components, such as the vacuum chamber, the microchannel-plate detectors and the high-voltage drivers. We believe that the CEP phasemeter, which is one of FIELDTECH products, is potentially superior to the above-mentioned two techniques in almost all aspects.

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