Recent developments in ultrafast laser technology have resulted in novel few-cycle sources in the mid-infrared. Accurately characterizing the time-dependent intensities and electric field waveforms of such laser pulses is essential to their applications in strong-field physics and attosecond pulse generation, but this remains a challenge. Recently, it was shown that tunnel ionization can provide an ultrafast temporal “gate” for characterizing high-energy few-cycle laser waveforms capable of ionizing air. Here, we show that tunneling and multiphoton excitation in a dielectric solid can provide a means to measure lower-energy and longer-wavelength pulses, and we apply the technique to characterize microjoule-level near- and mid-infrared pulses. The method lends itself to both all-optical and on-chip detection of laser waveforms, as well as single-shot detection geometries.

中文翻译：

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在固体中使用隧道效应对少周期红外脉冲进行全光采样

超快激光技术的最新发展产生了新型的中红外少周期光源。准确表征此类激光脉冲的时间相关强度和电场波形对于它们在强场物理和阿秒脉冲生成中的应用至关重要，但这仍然是一个挑战。最近，研究表明隧道电离可以提供一个超快的时间“门”，用于表征能够电离空气的高能量少周期激光波形。在这里，我们展示了介电固体中的隧穿和多光子激发可以提供一种测量较低能量和较长波长脉冲的方法，并且我们应用该技术来表征微焦耳级近红外和中红外脉冲。该方法适用于激光波形的全光学和片上检测，