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Free keywords:
NONLINEAR PULSE-PROPAGATION; WHITE-LIGHT CONTINUUM; OPTICAL-FIBERS;
ELECTRON LOCALIZATION; REFRACTIVE-INDEX; IONIZATION; NM; SPECTROSCOPY;
COMPRESSION; RADIATIONOptics; Physics;
Abstract:
We report on the generation of a three-octave-wide supercontinuum extending from the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) to the near infrared, spanning at least 113-1000 nm (i.e., 11-1.2eV), in He-filled hollow-core kagome-style photonic crystal fiber. Numerical simulations confirm that the main mechanism is an interaction between dispersive-wave emission and plasma-induced blue-shifted soliton recompression around the fiber zero dispersion frequency. The VUV part of the supercontinuum, the modeling of which proves to be coherent and possesses a simple phase structure, has sufficient bandwidth to support single-cycle pulses of 500 asec 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.
