Efficient self-compression of ultrashort near-UV pulses in air-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers

Abstract

We report generation of ultrashort near-UV pulses by soliton self-compression in kagomé-style hollow-core photonic crystal fibers filled with ambient air. Pump pulses with the energy of 2.6 μJ and duration of 11 fs. The experimental results are supported by numerical simulations, showing that both Raman and Kerr effects play a role in the compression dynamics. The convenience of using ambient air and the absence of glass windows that would distort the compressed pulses makes the setup highly attractive as the basis of an efficient table-top UV compressor

David Novoa

Ikerbasque Research Fellow & Visiting Professor