High-contrast, intense single-cycle pulses are highly desirable tools in ultrafast science, enabling highest temporal resolution, pushing matter to extreme conditions, and serving as drivers in petahertz electronics. In this Letter, we use thin solid plates in a double multi-plate supercontinuum configuration, delivering a broadband spectrum spanning from $\sim\!{400}$ to $\sim\!{1000}\;{\rm nm}$ at the $ - {20}\;{\rm dB}$ intensity level to produce a single-cycle pulse. We show that the spectral broadening by self-phase modulation with few-cycle pulses is more suitable for compression than the single-cycle limit than with multi-cycle pulses. The pulses are compressed to 2.6 fs pulses, close to the transform limit of 2.55 fs, with an energy of 0.235 mJ. They exhibit an excellent power stability of 0.5% rms over 3 h and a beam profile. The obtained single-cycle pulses can be utilized in many applications, such as generation of isolated attosecond pulses via high-order harmonic generation, investigation of ultrafast phenomena with extreme temporal resolution, or high-intensity laser-solid experiments.

中文翻译：

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全薄板设置中的高对比度，强烈的单周期脉冲

高对比度，强烈的单周期脉冲是超快科学中非常需要的工具，可实现最高的时间分辨率，将物质推向极端条件，并充当Petahertz电子设备的驱动器。在这封信中，我们在双多板超连续谱配置中使用薄实心板，提供从$ \ sim \！{400} $到$ \ sim \！{1000} \; {\ rm nm} $的宽带频谱在$-{20} \; {\ rm dB} $强度水平以产生单周期脉冲。我们显示，与单周期限制相比，与多周期脉冲相比，通过少周期脉冲的自相位调制进行的频谱展宽更适合压缩。脉冲被压缩为2.6 fs脉冲，接近转换极限2.55 fs，能量为0.235 mJ。它们在3 h内具有0.5％rms的出色功率稳定性和光束轮廓。所获得的单周期脉冲可用于许多应用，例如通过高次谐波生成生成孤立的阿秒脉冲，以极高的时间分辨率研究超快现象或进行高强度激光固体实验。