Concatenation of Kerr solitary waves in Ceramic YAG: application to coherent Raman imaging

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how concatenated Kerr solitons in ceramic YAG can produce stable broadband filaments for advanced coherent Raman imaging, combining simulations and experiments to optimize supercontinuum generation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of using concatenated Kerr solitons in ceramic YAG for stable broadband filamentation and improved CARS imaging capabilities.

Findings

Stable broadband filaments achieved in ceramic YAG.

Supercontinuum generation depends on input power.

Enhanced CARS imaging potential demonstrated.

Abstract

A coherent concatenation of multiple Townes solitons may lead to a stable infrared and visible broadband filament in ceramic YAG polycrystal. This self-trapped soliton train is leveraged to implement self-referenced multiplex coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering imaging. Simulations and experiments illustrating the filamentation process and the concatenation of focusing-defocusing cycles in ceramic and crystal YAG are presented. In addition, our simulations and experiments further examine the dependence of the filamentation onset location and supercontinuum generation upon peak input power. Understanding this dependence is key for implementation of viable CARS imaging techniques, due to the comparatively exceptional ability of YAG to generate supercontinuum which can enable higher-sensitivity imaging without delay lines.