Coralie Fourcade Dutin

Beam delivery and pulse compression to sub-50 fs of a modelocked thin-disk laser in a gas-filled Kagome-type HC-PCF fiber.

We present two experiments confirming that hypocycloid Kagome-type hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCFs) are excellent candidates for beam delivery of MW peak powers and pulse compression down to the sub-50 fs regime. We demonstrate temporal pulse compression of a 1030-nm Yb:YAG thin disk laser providing 860 fs, 1.9 µJ pulses at 3.9 MHz. Using a single-pass grating pulse compressor, we obtained a pulse duration of 48 fs (FWHM), a spectral bandwidth of 58 nm, and an average output power of 4.2 W with an overall power efficiency into the final polarized compressed pulse of 56%. The pulse energy was 1.1 µJ. This corresponds to a peak power of more than 10 MW and a compression factor of 18 taking into account the exact temporal pulse profile measured with a SHG FROG. The compressed pulses were close to the transform limit of 44 fs. Moreover, we present transmission of up to 97 µJ pulses at 10.5 ps through 10-cm long fiber, corresponding to more than twice the critical peak power for self-focusing in silica.

Hollow-core Optical Fiber Gas Lasers (HOFGLAS): a review [Invited]

The development of hollow core photonic crystal fibers with low losses over a broad spectral region in the near IR enabled the demonstration of a novel laser type - Hollow-core Optical Fiber Gas Laser (HOFGLAS). The laser combines attractive features of fiber lasers such as compactness and long interaction length of pump and laser radiation with those of gas lasers such as the potential for high output power and narrow line width. This paper summarizes recent developments and describes the demonstration of C2H2 and HCN prototype lasers. Avenues to extend laser emission further into the IR are discussed.

Toward an all-fiber based optically referenced frequency comb

A potentially portable optical metrology system is demonstrated by using an acetylene-filled optical fiber frequency reference as an optical reference to a fiber-laser based frequency comb without an intracavity EOM.

Efficient Mid-IR lasing in gas-filled hollow waveguides

Mid-IR lasers operating at 3-3.2 μm and 4.3-4.4 μm with efficiencies near 20% have been demonstrated from ¹²C₂H₂ and HCN-filled low-loss (<; 5 dB/m) kagome-structure HC-PCF and from CO-filled silver coated capillaries.