Multi-octave spanning, Watt-level ultrafast mid-infrared source

Butler TP, Lilienfein N, Xu J, Nagl N, Hofer C, Gerz D, Mak KF, Gaida C, Heuermann T, Gebhardt M, Limpert J, Krausz F, Pupeza I (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

JPhys Photonics Institute of Physics (IOP)

Book Volume: 1

Article Number: 044006

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.1088/2515-7647/ab4976

Abstract

We present a source of brilliant mid-infrared radiation, seamlessly covering the wavelength range between 1.33 and 18 μm (7500–555 cm⁻¹) with three channels, employing broadband nonlinear conversion processes driven by the output of a thulium-fiber laser system. The high-average-power femtosecond frontend delivers a 50 MHz train of 250 fs pulses spectrally centered at 1.96 μm. The three parallel channels employ soliton self-compression in a fused-silica fiber, supercontinuum generation in a ZBLAN fiber, and difference-frequency generation in GaSe driven by soliton self-compressed pulses. The total output enables spectral coverage from 1.33 to 2.4 μm, from 2.4 to 5.2 μm, and from 5.2 to 18 μm with 4.5 W, 0.22 W and 0.5 W, respectively. This spatially coherent source with a footprint of less than 4 m² exceeds the brilliance of 3rd-generation synchrotrons by more than three orders of magnitude over 90% of the bandwidth.

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) / Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik

Germany (DE) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU)

Germany (DE) Active Fiber Systems (AFS)

Germany (DE) Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Butler, T.P., Lilienfein, N., Xu, J., Nagl, N., Hofer, C., Gerz, D.,... Pupeza, I. (2019). Multi-octave spanning, Watt-level ultrafast mid-infrared source. JPhys Photonics, 1(4). https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7647/ab4976

MLA:

Butler, T. P., et al. "Multi-octave spanning, Watt-level ultrafast mid-infrared source." JPhys Photonics 1.4 (2019).

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