Abstract
We report self-compression of mid-IR optical pulses to the few-cycle regime in an anti-resonant hollow core fiber filled with ambient air. Transform-limited 120-fs duration input optical pulses with 160 μJ energy are compressed to 29.8 fs (< 3 cycles) with a compression efficiency of 75%, resulting in 2.6 GW peak power few-cycle pulses. In addition, we show that nonlinear compression is maintained when the fiber is coiled, allowing for a compact setup. Finally, we elucidate the dynamics involved in this self-compression setup via numerical simulations and identify the critical role played by Raman shifting in molecular gases and ionization limitations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 5145-5148 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Optics Letters |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 16 |
| Early online date | 14 Aug 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Aug 2025 |
Data Availability Statement
Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.Acknowledgements
V.W.S.S. acknowledges funding from the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (PRE2020-092181). The authors acknowledge RES resources provided by BSC in MareNostrum 5 to FI-2024-2-0010 and FI-2024-3-0035. The JILA team gratefully acknowledges support from the Department of Energy BES Award No. DE-FG02−99ER14982 for the experimental implementation and from an NSF MRI Award 1828705 for the 3 μm beamline.Funding
European Research Council European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (851201); Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (PID2022-142340NB-I00); Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León and FEDER Funds (Escalera 237 de Excelencia CLU-2023-1-02, SA108P24).
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics