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High-energy multidimensional solitary states in hollow-core fibres

Nature Photonics volume 14, pages 733–739 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Multidimensional solitary states (MDSS)—self-sustained wavepackets—have attracted renewed interest in many different fields of physics. They are of particular importance in nonlinear optics, especially for the nonlinear propagation of ultrashort pulses in multimode fibres, which contain rich spatiotemporal intermodal interactions and dynamics, albeit often in an unstable manner. Here, we report the observation of the formation of highly stable multidimensional solitary states in a molecular gas-filled large-core hollow-core fibre. We experimentally and numerically demonstrate the creation of MDSS by multimillijoule, subpicosecond near-infrared pulses and the underlying physics. We find that the MDSS have a broadband redshifted spectra with an uncommon negative quadratic spectral phase at the output of the hollow-core fibre, originating from Raman enhancement due to the strong intermodal nonlinear interactions. The spatial and temporal localization of MDSS enables the compression of the broadened pulses at the output to 10.8 fs by simple linear propagation in a piece of fused silica. The high spatiotemporal quality of MDSS is further verified by high-harmonic generation. Our results present new opportunities for studying multimodal spatiotemporal dynamics in the high-energy regime. This work also presents a route toward a new class of compact, tunable and high-energy spatiotemporally engineered coherent light sources based on picosecond ytterbium technology.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual illustration and experimental observation of MDSS.
Fig. 2: Demonstration of MDSS creation and Raman enhancement via multidimensional interactions.
Fig. 3: Modal evolution of the self-trapped MDSS beam using 700 fs driver pulses with 5 mJ input energy.
Fig. 4: Temporal evolution of the self-trapped MDSS driven by 5 mJ, 700 fs pulses at 2,500 mbar.
Fig. 5: High-harmonic generation in argon using compressed MDSS pulses.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (R.S.) on reasonable request.

Code availability

The computer code used in this study will be made available from the corresponding author (R.S.) on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

R.S. acknowledges financial support from the FRQNT Ph.D. scholarship programme. The research received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Fonds de Recherche du Qubec sur la Nature et les Technologies (FRQNT). We thank P. B. Corkum, J. Powell and S. Beaulieu for discussions.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Reza Safaei, Guangyu Fan.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Énergie Matériaux et Télécommunications, Varennes, Quebec, Canada

    Reza Safaei, Guangyu Fan, Ojoon Kwon, Katherine Légaré, Philippe Lassonde, Heide Ibrahim & François Légaré

  2. Few-cycle Inc., Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Bruno E. Schmidt

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  1. Reza Safaei
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Contributions

R.S. performed the theoretical analysis and numerical simulations. R.S. and G.F. performed the experiment with the support of O.K. and K.L. R.S. and G.F. analysed the experimental data. R.S. wrote the manuscript with the support of G.F. and input from all other authors. F.L. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Reza Safaei or François Légaré.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–14, Sections 1–12, Equations 1–13 and Tables 1–2.

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Safaei, R., Fan, G., Kwon, O. et al. High-energy multidimensional solitary states in hollow-core fibres. Nat. Photonics 14, 733–739 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-020-00699-2

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