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Published in

Optica, Optics Letters, 23(46), p. 5890, 2021

DOI: 10.1364/ol.445235

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Fiber-based source of 500 kW mid-infrared solitons

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Fiber-based sources delivering high-energy few-cycle pulses at high repetition rates are currently being developed in the near-infrared spectral range, thanks to the wide availability of telecommunication-grade optical fibers and components. Similar sources in the middle-wave infrared (mid-IR) spectral domain, however, are scarce, although such sources are of high interest for applications such as high-precision frequency metrology and molecular spectroscopy or as a seed source to reach further into the mid-IR via coherent nonlinear processes. Here we report on the design of a fiber-based source of 50-nJ energy 90 fs duration pulses up to 2950 nm, corresponding to 500 kW peak power. To obtain this level of peak power we exploit multi-solitonic fission and soliton self-frequency shift in large mode area fibers excited by picosecond pulses emitted at 2 µm from a megahertz repetition rate fiber laser. We leverage mature silica-based fiber technology up to 2.4 µm and restrict the use of fluoride fiber to the very last frequency-shifting stage. The level of instantaneous power and ultra-short duration achieved in this Letter pave the way to all-fiber format generation of an ultra-broadband coherent continuum in the mid-IR with profound implications for applications such as high-resolution molecular spectroscopy and imaging.