Benoît Debord

Generation and confinement of microwave gas-plasma in photonic dielectric microstructure.

We report on a self-guided microwave surface-wave induced generation of ~60 μm diameter and 6 cm-long column of argon-plasma confined in the core of a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. At gas pressure of 1 mbar, the micro-confined plasma exhibits a stable transverse profile with a maximum gas-temperature as high as 1300 ± 200 K, and a wall-temperature as low as 500 K, and an electron density level of 10¹⁴ cm⁻³. The fiber guided fluorescence emission presents strong Ar⁺ spectral lines in the visible and near UV. Theory shows that the observed combination of relatively low wall-temperature and high ionisation rate in this strongly confined configuration is due to an unprecedentedly wide electrostatic space-charge field and the subsequent ion acceleration dominance in the plasma-to-gas power transfer.

Hypocycloid-shaped hollow-core photonic crystal fiber Part I: arc curvature effect on confinement loss.

We report on numerical and experimental studies showing the influence of arc curvature on the confinement loss in hypocycloid-core Kagome hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. The results prove that with such a design the optical performances are strongly driven by the contour negative curvature of the core-cladding interface. They show that the increase in arc curvature results in a strong decrease in both the confinement loss and the optical power overlap between the core mode and the silica core-surround, including a modal content approaching true single-mode guidance. Fibers with enhanced negative curvature were then fabricated with a record loss-level of 17 dB/km at 1064 nm.

Hypocycloid-shaped hollow-core photonic crystal fiber Part II: cladding effect on confinement and bend loss.

We report on numerical and experimental studies on the influence of cladding ring-number on the confinement and bend loss in hypocycloid-shaped Kagome hollow core photonic crystal fiber. The results show that beyond the second ring, the ring number has a minor effect on confinement loss whereas the bend loss is strongly reduced with the ring-number increase. Finally, the results show that the increase in the cladding ring-number improves the modal content of the fiber.

Multi-meter fiber-delivery and pulse self-compression of milli-Joule femtosecond laser and fiber-aided laser-micromachining

We report on damage-free fiber-guidance of milli-Joule energy-level and 600-femtosecond laser pulses into hypocycloid core-contour Kagome hollow-core photonic crystal fibers. Up to 10 meter-long fibers were used to successfully deliver Yb-laser pulses in robustly single-mode fashion. Different pulse propagation regimes were demonstrated by simply changing the fiber dispersion and gas. Self-compression to ~50 fs, and intensity-level nearing petawatt/cm(2) were achieved. Finally, free focusing-optics laser-micromachining was also demonstrated on different materials.

Ultra low-loss hypocycloid-core Kagome hollow-core photonic crystal fiber for green spectral-range applications

We report on the development of hypocycloidal-core kagome HC-PCF operating efficiently in the 450nm-650nm visible spectral range. Transmission loss as low as 70dB/km is achieved. Strong Raman comb generation and laser beam delivery are demonstrated.

Ultralow transmission loss in inhibited-coupling guiding hollow fibers

Attenuation in photonic bandgap guiding hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) has not beaten the fundamental silica Rayleigh scattering limit (SRSL) of conventional step-index fibers due to strong core-cladding optical overlap, surface roughness at the silica cladding struts, and the presence of interface modes. Hope has been revived recently by the introduction of hypocycloid core contour (i.e., negative curvature) in inhibited-coupling guiding HC-PCF. We report on several fibers with a hypocycloid core contour and a cladding structure made of a single ring from a tubular amorphous lattice, including one with a record transmission loss of 7.7 dB/km at ∼750  nm (only a factor ∼2 above the SRSL) and a second with an ultrabroad fundamental band with loss in the range of 10–20 dB/km, spanning from 600 to 1200 nm. The reduction in confinement loss makes these fibers serious contenders for light transmission below the SRSL in the UV–VIS–NIR spectral range and could find application in high-energy pulse laser beam delivery or gas-based coherent and nonlinear optics.

Optical Properties of Low Loss (70dB/km) Hypocycloid-Core Kagome Hollow Core Photonic Crystal Fiber for Rb and Cs Based Optical Applications

We report on hypocycloid core shaped hollow-core Kagome fiber with a record loss of 70 dB/km at a spectral range of around 750-850 nm, which is compatible with Cs and Rb based applications. The fiber exhibits a single mode operation in a core diameter as large as 40 μm, and very low sensitivity to bend. We show experimentally that the bending-loss is limited by coupling between the guiding core mode and the modes in the cladding holes.

Over-five octaves wide Raman combs in high-power picosecond-laser pumped H 2 -filled inhibited coupling Kagome fiber

We report on the generation of over 5 octaves wide Raman combs using inhibited coupling Kagome guiding hollow-core photonic crystal fiber filled with hydrogen and pumped with 22.7 W average power and 27 picosecond pulsed fiber laser. Combs spanning from ~321 nm in the UV to ~12.5 µm in the long-wavelength IR (i.e. from 24 THz to 933 THz) with different spectral content and with an output average power of up to ~10 W were generated. In addition to the clear potential of such a comb as a laser source emitting at spectral ranges, which existing technology poorly addresses like long-wavelength IR and UV, the combination of high Raman net gain and short pump-pulse duration makes these spectra an excellent candidate for intra-pulse waveform synthesis.

Nonlinear compression of high energy fiber amplifier pulses in air-filled hypocycloid-core Kagome fiber

We report on the generation of 34 fs and 50 µJ pulses from a high energy fiber amplifier system with nonlinear compression in an air-filled hypocycloid-core Kagome fiber. The unique properties of such fibers allow bridging the gap between solid core fibers-based and hollow capillary-based post-compression setups, thereby operating with pulse energies obtained with current state-of-the-art fiber systems. The overall transmission of the compression setup is over 70%. Together with Yb-doped fiber amplifier technologies, Kagome fibers therefore appear as a promising tool for efficient generation of pulses with durations below 50 fs, energies ranging from 10 to several hundreds of µJ, and high average powers.

CW hollow-core optically pumped I 2 fiber gas laser

CW lasing in the 1280-1340 nm region is demonstrated from molecular iodine gas contained in a hollow-core kagome structured photonic crystal fiber when optically pumped at 532 nm.