Post-compression of high-peak power pulses in a compactbulk multi-pass cell

We demonstrate efficient post-compression of a 30 W, 0.46 GW peak power Yb source with 250 fs initial pulse duration, down to 31 fs (FWHM) in a bulk multi-pass cell (MPC). The bulk compression setup is compact, based only on off-the-shelf optics and features a total transmission of about 85 %. To the best of our knowledge, this constitutes the highest peak power in bulk MPC compression to-date, competing with gas-based post-compression solutions such as hollow-core fibers or gas-filled MPCs for a similar laser parameter range. With this simple first stage compression and potential further compression down to the few-cycle regime,opportunities open up for attosecond science applications