Nonlinear Generation, Compression and Spatio-Temporal Analysis of GV/cm-Class Femtosecond Mid-Infrared Transients

A thin-disk regenerative amplifier with 3 kHz repetition rate pumps a second-order nonlinear mixing scheme providing femtosecond transients of maximum electric field strength beyond 330 MV/cm at a center frequency of 45 THz. This value surpasses field conditions present at sub-molecular dimensions of matter. The inherent competition between efficiency and bandwidth in parametric downconversion is overcome with a third-order nonlinear step of self-phase modulation. The high repetition rate, versatility, beam quality and passive phase stability of our system support advanced spectroscopic approaches like electro-optic sampling. With this technique, we study solitonic self-compression and octave-spanning supercontinua directly on a subcycle scale.