Enhancement cavities are versatile tools for sensitive linear and nonlinear spectroscopy as well as efficient nonlinear optics at high repetition rates. At the Laboratory for Lightwave Metrology, we develop enhancement cavities for several applications: On one hand, we aim at extending the limits of this technology in terms of bandwidth and power, towards the highest peak intensities of ultrashort pulses. On the other hand, we investigate nonlinear steady states with special properties, like self-stabilizing and self-compressing solitons, in spectrally tailored cavities.

Very recently, we have reached an important milestone: We are happy to announce that our team has set up the first enhancement cavity in our labs at the RPTU Kaiserslautern, which is now operational. It will be used as a starting point to further optimize the locking electronics, investigate novel high-repetition-rate laser frontends in newly initiated collaborations, and for working toward high-peak-power ultrashort pulses in the linear and nonlinear (soliton) regime.

The picture shows PhD student Frederik Pütz investigating the enhancement cavity he built in our lab at RPTU in Kaiserslautern.