Femtosecond parabolic pulse nonlinear compression with gas-filled hollow-core fiber

We study theoretically the spectral intensity evolutions of the femtosecond Gaussian and parabolic pulses with different initial pulse energies and compare the nonlinear compressions of these pulses based on a meter-long hollow-core fiber filled with neon for different initial pulse durations. The pulses are first coupled into gas-filled hollow-core fiber for spectrum broadening, then compressed by the optimal chirp compensation. The parabolic pulse possesses a shorter pulse duration, larger peak power, and cleaner wings than Gaussian pulse. The properties are useful for compressing the pulses and thus generating the high-energy, short-duration pulses.

Generation of sub-three-cycle pulses at 53 MHz repetition rate via nonlinear compression in optical parametric oscillator

We report an experimental generation of few-cycle pulses at 53 MHz repetition rate. Femtosecond pulses with pulse duration of 181 fs are firstly generated from an optical parametric oscillator(OPO). Then, the pulses are compressed to subthree-cycle with a hybrid compressor composed of a commercial single-mode fiber and a pair of prisms, taking advantage of the tunability of the OPO and the numerical simulating of the nonlinear compression system. Our compressed optical pulses possess an ultrabroadband spectrum covering over 470 nm bandwidth(at-10 dB), and the output intensity fluctuation of our system is less than 0.8%. These results show that our system can effectively generate few-cycle pulses at a repetition rate of tens of megahertz with excellent long-term stability, which could benefit future possible applications.

Simple,stable and efficient nonlinear pulse compression through cascaded filamentation in air

Nonlinear compression has become an obligatory technique along with the development of ultrafast lasers in generating ultrashort pulses with narrow pulse widths and high peak power.In particular,techniques of nonlinear compression have experienced a rapid progress as ytterbium(Yb)-doped lasers with pulse widths in the range from hundreds of femtoseconds to a few picoseconds have become mainstream laser tools for both scientific and industrial applications.Here,we report a simple and stable nonlinear pulse compression technique with high efficiency through cascaded filamentation in air followed by dispersion compensation.Pulses at a center wavelength of 1040 nm with millijoule pulse energy and 160 fs pulse width from a high-power Yb:CaAlGdO_(4) regenerative amplifier are compressed to 32 fs,with only 2.4% loss from the filamentation process.The compressed pulse has a stable output power with a root-meansquare variation of 0.2% over 1 hour.

Amplification and Compression of Ultrashort Fundamental Solitons in An Erbium-Doped Nonlinear Amplifying Fiber Loop Mirror

A nonlinear amplifying loop mirror constructed from erbium-doped fiber is proposed for simultaneous amplification and compression of ultrashort fundamental solitons. Numerical simulations show that, the proposed device performs efficient high-quality amplification and compression of solitons.

Nonlinear Pulse Compression and Reshaping Using Cross-Phase Modulation in a Dispersion-Shifted Fiber

Nonlinear pulse compression has been demonstrated by cross-phase modulation in a dispersion-shifted fiber. The output is obtained from filtering of the broadened optical spectrum and a pulse width reduction from 61 to 28 ps is achieved.

Nonlinear chirped pulse amplification for a 100-W-class GHz femtosecond all-fiber laser system at 1.5μm

In this work,we present a high-power,high-repetition-rate,all-fiber femtosecond laser system operating at 1.5μm.This all-fiber laser system can deliver femtosecond pulses at a fundamental repetition rate of 10.6 GHz with an average output power of 106.4 W–the highest average power reported so far from an all-fiber femtosecond laser at 1.5μm,to the best of our knowledge.By utilizing the soliton-effect-based pulse compression effect with optimized pre-chirping dispersion,the amplified pulses are compressed to 239 fs in an all-fiber configuration.Empowered by such a high-power ultrafast fiber laser system,we further explore the nonlinear interaction among transverse modes LP01,LP11 and LP21 that are expected to potentially exist in fiber laser systems using large-mode-area fibers.The intermodal modulational instability is theoretically investigated and subsequently identified in our experiments.Such a high-power all-fiber ultrafast laser without bulky free-space optics is anticipated to be a promising laser source for applications that specifically require compact and robust operation.

Short mid-infrared watt-level all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor above 100-MHz pulse repetition rate

We firstly report a 2-μm all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor based on two pieces of normal dispersion fiber(NDF),which enables a high-power scaling ability of watt-level and a high pulse compression ratio of 13.7.With the NDFbased all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor,the 450-fs laser pulses with a repetition rate of 101.4 MHz are compressed to 35.1 fs,corresponding to a 5.2 optical oscillation cycle at the 2-μm wavelength region.The output average power reaches 1.28 W,which is believed to be the highest value never achieved from the previous 2-μm all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressors with a high pulse repetition rate above 100 MHz.The dynamic evolution of the ultrafast pulse inside the all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor is numerically analyzed,matching well with the experimental results.

Exploring new avenues in high repetition rate table-top coherent extreme ultraviolet sources

The process of high harmonic generation(HHG)enables the development of table-top sources of coherent extreme ultraviolet(XUV)light.Although these are now matured sources,they still mostly rely on bulk laser technology that limits the attainable repetition rate to the low kilohertz regime.Moreover,many of the emerging applications of such light sources(e.g.,photoelectron spectroscopy and microscopy,coherent diffractive imaging,or frequency metrology in the XUV spectral region)require an increase in the repetition rate.Ideally,these sources are operated with a multi-MHz repetition rate and deliver a high photon flux simultaneously.So far,this regime has been solely addressed using passive enhancement cavities together with low energy and high repetition rate lasers.Here,a novel route with significantly reduced complexity(omitting the requirement of an external actively stabilized resonator)is demonstrated that achieves the previously mentioned demanding parameters.A krypton-filled Kagome photonic crystal fiber is used for efficient nonlinear compression of 9 μJ,250 fs pulses leading to,7 μJ,31 fs pulses at 10.7 MHz repetition rate.The compressed pulses are used for HHG in a gas jet.Particular attention is devoted to achieving phase-matched(transiently)generation yielding.10^(13) photons s^(-1)(.50 μW)at 27.7 eV.This new spatially coherent XUV source improved the photon flux by four orders of magnitude for direct multi-MHZ experiments,thus demonstrating the considerable potential of this source.