Abstract
The advent of self-referenced optical frequency combs1,2 has sparked the development of novel areas in ultrafast sciences such as attosecond technology3,4 and the synthesis of arbitrary optical waveforms5,6. Few-cycle light pulses are key to these time-domain applications, driving a quest for reliable, stable and cost-efficient mode-locked laser sources with ultrahigh spectral bandwidth. Here, we present a set-up based entirely on compact erbium-doped fibre technology, which produces single cycles of light. The pulse duration of 4.3 fs is close to the shortest possible value for a data bit of information transmitted in the near-infrared regime. These results demonstrate that fundamental limits for optical telecommunications are accessible with existing fibre technology and standard free-space components.
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A.L., G.K., S.L., A.S. and R.H. conceived the experiment, and together with T.H. and S.E. carried it out; G.K., S.L., A.L. and A.S. designed and carried out the data analysis; G.K., S.L., R.H. and A.L. co-wrote the paper.
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Krauss, G., Lohss, S., Hanke, T. et al. Synthesis of a single cycle of light with compact erbium-doped fibre technology. Nature Photon 4, 33–36 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.258
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.258
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