Alexey Ermolov

Damage-free single-mode transmission of deep-UV light in hollow-core PCF.

Transmission of UV light with high beam quality and pointing stability is desirable for many experiments in atomic, molecular and optical physics. In particular, laser cooling and coherent manipulation of trapped ions with transitions in the UV require stable, single-mode light delivery. Transmitting even ~2 mW CW light at 280 nm through silica solid-core fibers has previously been found to cause transmission degradation after just a few hours due to optical damage. We show that photonic crystal fiber of the kagomé type can be used for effectively single-mode transmission with acceptable loss and bending sensitivity. No transmission degradation was observed even after >100 hours of operation with 15 mW CW input power. In addition it is shown that implementation of the fiber in a trapped ion experiment increases the coherence time of the internal state transfer due to an increase in beam pointing stability.

Supercontinuum generation in the vacuum ultraviolet through dispersive-wave and soliton-plasma interaction in a noble-gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

We report on the generation of a three-octave-wide supercontinuum extending from the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) to the near-infrared, spanning at least 113 to 1000 nm (i.e., 11 to 1.2 eV), in He-filled hollow-core kagome-style photonic crystal fiber. Numerical simulations confirm that the main mechanism is a novel and previously undiscovered interaction between dispersive-wave emission and plasma-induced blueshifted soliton recompression around the fiber zero dispersion frequency. The VUV part of the supercontinuum, which modeling shows to be coherent and possess a simple phase structure, has sufficient bandwidth to support single-cycle pulses of 500 attosecond duration. We also demonstrate, in the same system, the generation of narrower-band VUV pulses, through dispersive-wave emission, tunable from 120 to 200 nm with efficiencies exceeding 1% and VUV pulse energies in excess of 50 nJ.

Low loss hollow optical-waveguide connection from atmospheric pressure to ultra-high vacuum

A technique for optically accessing ultra-high vacuum environments, via a photonic-crystal fiber with a long small hollow core, is described. The small core and the long bore enable a pressure ratio of over 108 to be maintained between two environments, while permitting efficient and unimpeded delivery of light, including ultrashort optical pulses. This delivery can be either passive or can encompass nonlinear optical processes such as optical pulse compression, deep UV generation, supercontinuum generation, or other useful phenomena.

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with 9-eV photon-energy pulses generated in a gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

A recently developed source of ultraviolet radiation, based on optical soliton propagation in a gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber, is applied here to angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Near-infrared femtosecond pulses of only few μJ energy generate vacuum ultraviolet radiation between 5.5 and 9 eV inside the gas-filled fiber. These pulses are used to measure the band structure of the topological insulator Bi2Se3 with a signal to noise ratio comparable to that obtained with high order harmonics from a gas jet. The two-order-of-magnitude gain in efficiency promises time-resolved ARPES measurements at repetition rates of hundreds of kHz or even MHz, with photon energies that cover the first Brillouin zone of most materials.

Characterization of few-fs deep-UV dispersive waves by ultra-broadband transient-grating XFROG

A multi-shot transient-grating cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) is implemented for the characterization of nanojoule-scale, few-femtosecond, deep-ultraviolet pulses. In theory, the system can characterize pulses with a bandwidth extending from below 200 nm to above 1.5 μm. It is experimentally shown that a 200 THz (50 nm) wide dispersive wave centered at 275 nm, generated in a gas-filled HC-PCF, has a temporal duration of 4 fs. The numerical simulations agree well with the experiment. The results confirm that dispersive wave emission in a gas-filled HC-PCF can be used as a novel source of ultrashort UV pulses in a range of applications, for example, ultrafast UV pump-probe spectroscopy.

UV Soliton Dynamics and Raman-Enhanced Supercontinuum Generation in Photonic Crystal Fiber

Ultrafast broadband ultraviolet radiation is of importance in spectroscopy and photochemistry, since high photon energies enable single-photon excitations and ultrashort pulses allow time-resolved studies. Here we report the use of gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCFs) for efficient ultrafast nonlinear optics in the ultraviolet. Soliton self-compression of 400 nm pulses of (unprecedentedly low) ~500 nJ energies down to sub-6-fs durations is achieved, as well as resonant emission of tunable dispersive waves from these solitons. In addition, we discuss the generation of a flat supercontinuum extending from the deep ultraviolet to the visible in a hydrogen-filled HC-PCF. Comparisons with argon-filled fibers show that the enhanced Raman gain at high frequencies makes the hydrogen system more efficient. As HC-PCF technology develops, we expect these fiber-based ultraviolet sources to lead to new applications.

Extremely broadband single-shot cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating using a transient grating as gate and dispersive element.

A cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) concept, potentially suitable for characterizing few or sub-cycle pulses in a single shot, is described in which a counter-propagating transient grating is used as both the gate and the dispersive element in a FROG spectrometer. An all-reflective setup, which can operate over the whole transmission range of the nonlinear medium, within the sensitivity range of the matrix sensor, is also proposed, and proof-of-principle experiments for the ultraviolet and visible-to-near-infrared spectral ranges are reported.

Solid-core and hollow-core photonic crystal fiber for generation of bright ultraviolet light(Conference Presentation)

Over the last two decades the interest in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) has grown considerably, particularly in nonlinear optics where it allows enhanced control over the dispersion landscape. Although silica is the material most commonly used to fabricate PCF, its limited window of transmission and its susceptibility to optical damage at wavelengths below ~350nm is driving the development of fibers made from glasses with transmission windows extending into the deep ultraviolet and the mid-infrared. An alternative is offered by gas-filled hollow-core fiber, in which the light propagates predominantly in the gas. In kagomé-style hollow-core PCF filled with noble gas, the weak anomalous dispersion of the empty fiber is balanced by the normal dispersion of the filling gas, resulting in a versatile system whose dispersion landscape can be adjusted in real time [Travers et al., JOSAB 28, A11 (2011)]. Under appropriate conditions the launched pulse undergoes soliton self-compression followed by emission of a band of dispersive radiation in the UV. UV light tunable down to 113 nm has been generated with this technique [Russell et al., Nat. Photon. 8, 278 (2014)]. Solid-core ZBLAN (fluorozirconate) glass PCF is transparent from 0.2 to ~7.8µm. Launching ~1nJ 140fs pulses at 1µm wavelength into a ~1µm diameter core resulted, after 4cm of propagation, in generation of a supercontinuum spectrum extending from ~210nm to beyond 2µm. In strong contrast to silica PCF, the ZBLAN PCF showed no signs of any solarization-related damage, even when operating over many hours [Jiang et al., Nat. Photon. 9, 133 (2015)].

Vacuum-UV dispersive wave emission using gas-filled hollow-core PCF

Vacuum-UV radiation between 145-155 nm is generated from 40 fs, 800 nm 6.8 μJ pump pulses in a 34 μm core-diameter kagomé-photonic crystal fibre (PCF) filled with 20-25 bar neon. Simulations confirm the mechanism as resonant dispersive-wave emission.

Tunable sources from the visible to vacuum-UV based on gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers

High-energy, single-mode, coherent, ultrafast pulses of light - tunable from the vacuum-UV to the visible spectral region - can be generated in gas-filled hollow-core photonic-crystal fibers through a simple experimental scheme.