Generation and characterization of frequency tuneable sub-15 fs pulses in a gas-filled hollow-core fiber pumped by a Yb:KGW laser

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the generation of sub-15 femtosecond pulses in a gas-filled hollow-core fiber pumped by a Yb:KGW laser, achieving tunable wavelengths and detailed pulse characterization.

Contribution

It presents the first full characterization of plasma-soliton dynamics in hollow-core fibers and achieves tunable, ultra-short pulses via soliton self-compression and photoionization effects.

Findings

Self-compression of 220 fs to 13 fs pulses in a single stage

Tunable pulse generation from 1030 nm to ~700 nm

First full time-frequency plasma-soliton dynamics measurement

Abstract

We investigate soliton self-compression and photoionization effects in an argon-filled antiresonant hollow-core photonic crystal fiber pumped with a commercial Yb:KGW laser. Before the onset of photoionization, we demonstrate self-compression of our 220~fs pump laser to 13~fs in a single and compact stage. By using the plasma driven soliton self-frequency blueshift, we also demonstrate a tuneable source from 1030 to ~700 nm. We fully characterize the compressed pulses using sum-frequency generation time-domain ptychography, experimentally revealing the full time-frequency plasma-soliton dynamics in hollow-core fibre for the first time.