Soliton explosion driven multi-octave supercontinuum generation by geometry-enforced dispersion design in antiresonant hollow-core fibers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that geometry-enforced dispersion design in antiresonant hollow-core fibers enables multi-octave supercontinuum generation spanning deep UV to near-infrared, driven by soliton explosion effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dispersion engineering approach using structural resonances in gas-filled fibers, allowing broadband supercontinuum generation independent of core size.

Findings

Spectral broadening from 200 nm to 1.7 μm achieved with Krypton-filled fiber.

Observation of soliton explosion as a physical mechanism for frequency generation.

Dispersion tuning enables scalable, high-energy ultrabroadband light sources.

Abstract

Ultrafast supercontinuum generation in gas-filled waveguides is one enabling technology for many intriguing application ranging from attosecond metrology towards biophotonics, with the amount of spectral broadening crucially depending on the pulse dispersion of the propagating mode. Here we show that the structural resonances in gas-filled anti-resonant hollow core optical fiber provide an additional degree of freedom in dispersion engineering, allowing for the generation of more than three octaves of broadband light ranging deep UV wavelength towards the near infrared.Our observation relies on the introduction of a geometric-induced resonance in the spectral vicinity of the pump laser outperforming the gas dispersion, thus yielding a dispersion being independent of core size, which is highly relevant for scaling input powers.Using a Krypton filled fiber we observe spectral broadening from 200 nm towards 1.7 \mu m at an output energy of about 23 \mu J within a single mode across the entire spectral bandwidth. Simulations show that the efficient frequency generation results from a new physical effect the soliton explosion originating from the strongly non-adiabatic mode dispersion profile.This effect alongside with the dispersion tuning capability of the fiber will enable compact ultrabroadband high energy sources spanning from the UV to the mid-infrared spectral range.