We combine soliton dynamics in gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers with a state-of-the-art fiber laser to realize a turnkey system producing few-femtosecond pulses at 8-MHz repetition rate at pump energies as low as 220 nJ. Furthermore, by exploiting the soliton self-frequency shift in a second hydrogen-filled hollow-core fiber, we efficiently generate pulses as short as 22 fs, continuously tunable from 1100 to 1474 nm.
Backward jet propulsion of particles by femtosecond pulses in hollow-core photonic crystal fiber
Maria N. Romodina,
Shangran Xie,
Francesco Tani,
Philip St.J. Russell
A dielectric microparticle, optically trapped within an air-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber PCF), is accelerated backwards close to the speed of sound when a single guided femtosecond pulse is incident upon it. Acting as a spherical lens, the particle focuses a fraction of the pulse energy onto its inner rear surface, causing the material to ablate. The resulting plasma and vapor jet act like a rocket motor, driving the particle backward at peak accelerations conservatively estimated at more than a million times gravity. Using counter-propagating pulses to suppress particle motion, the effect may permit the inner core walls to be coated locally with different materials, allowing optical devices to be created at otherwise inaccessible points inside long lengths of hollow-core PCF.
Contact
Research Group Francesco Tani
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light Staudtstr. 2 91058 Erlangen, Germany
