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Hollow-core photonic crystal fibres for gas-based nonlinear optics

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 278–286 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Unlike the capillaries conventionally used for gas-based spectral broadening of ultrashort (<100 fs) multi-millijoule pulses, which produce only normal dispersion at usable pressure levels, hollow-core photonic crystal fibres provide pressure-adjustable normal or anomalous dispersion. They also permit low-loss guidance in a hollow channel that is about ten times narrower and has a 100-fold-higher effective nonlinearity than capillary-based systems. This has led to several dramatic results, including soliton compression to few-cycle pulses, widely tunable deep-ultraviolet light sources, novel soliton–plasma interactions and multi-octave Raman frequency combs. A new generation of versatile and efficient gas-based light sources, which are tunable from the vacuum ultraviolet to the near infrared, and of versatile and efficient pulse compression devices is emerging.

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Figure 1: Properties of kagome-style HC-PCF.
Figure 2: Three illustrative examples of nonlinear propagation in a gas-filled kagome PCF.
Figure 3: Pressure and energy dependencies of diverse phenomena in a gas-filled kagome PCF with a core diameter of 26 μm and length of 50 cm at a temperature of 293 K.
Figure 4: Tunability of ultraviolet light generation in a gas-filled kagome PCF.
Figure 5: Several different aspects of SRS in a HC-PCF.

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  1. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Guenther-Scharowsky Strasse 1, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    P. St. J. Russell, P. Hölzer, W. Chang, A. Abdolvand & J. C. Travers

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Russell, P., Hölzer, P., Chang, W. et al. Hollow-core photonic crystal fibres for gas-based nonlinear optics. Nature Photon 8, 278–286 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.312

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