Absolute phase control of intense few cycle pulses and steering the atomic scale motion of electrons [Elektronische Ressource] / Aart Verhoef

Absolutephasecontrolofintensefew cyclepulsesandsteeringtheatomic scalemotionofelectronsAartVerhoefMunchen¨ 2006Absolutephasecontrolofintensefew cyclepulsesandsteeringtheatomic scalemotionofelectronsAartVerhoefDissertationanderFakultat¨ fur¨ PhysikderLudwig–Maximilians–Universitat¨Munchen¨vorgelegtvonAartVerhoefausAmsterdamMunchen,¨ den21Dezember2006Erstgutachter:Prof.Dr.F.KrauszZweitgutachter:Prof.Dr.D.HabsTagdermundlichen¨ Prufung:¨ 22Marz¨ 2007vWeoftendiscoverwhatwilldo,byfindingoutwhatwillnotdo.–SamuelSmiley–viAbstractInthepastfewyears,ultrafastlasertechnologyhasdevelopedtosuchadegreethatthephaseof a pulse under its envelope is now a meaningful measurable quantity. Many experimentsnowrequiretheuseofpulseswithafixedphase.Thereliableproductionofsuchpulses,overextendedperiodsoftime,isofkeyimportancetomanyareasofscience.The central theme of this thesis is the generation of intense phase controlled few cycleoptical pulses and their applications. This thesis reports on substantial improvements madeinthegenerationofcarrier envelopephase controlledpulses.Measurementsperformedshowthe accuracy to which absolute phase can be controlled has been improved to a unprecededlevel. Also, the period of time over which such high accuracy measurements could be per-formedwasextendedbymorethanafactoroffive,suchthatcarrier envelopephase sensitivemeasurementsthattakelongerthan24hourswithoutanybreaksarenowpossible.