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Abstract

Self-focusing of few-cycle pulses in atmospheric-pressure argon results in a supercontinuum which differs remarkably from the case of longer pulses: under single-filament conditions it extends to 200 nm and 250 nm with 6 fs and 10 fs pulses, respectively; the radiation, including the shortest wavelengths, is collimated and shows no conical emission. The short-wavelength part is intrinsically at least as short as the incoming fundamental pulse. These features make the few-cycle supercontinuum attractive as a source of widely tunable 10 fs pump pulses for spectroscopic applications. We present extensive experimental results including the dependence of the spectrum on pulse energy, duration and chirp, filament length, gas pressure and a comparison with nitrogen and air. We discuss them and other features including the role of the third harmonic and identify the conditions required to get a single highly stable filament. We also present a model, based on self-guiding, which predicts useful scaling rules.