Single-cycle all-fiber frequency comb

Abstract

Single-cycle pulses with deterministic carrier-envelope phase enable the study and control of light-matter interactions at the sub-cycle timescale, as well as the efficient generation of low-noise multi-octave frequency combs. However, current single-cycle light sources are difficult to implement and operate, hindering their application and accessibility in a wider range of research. In this paper, we present a single-cycle 100 MHz frequency comb in a compact, turn-key, and reliable all-silica-fiber format. This is achieved by amplifying 2 $\mu$m seed pulses in heavily-doped Tm:fiber, followed by cascaded self-compression to yield 6.8 fs pulses with 215 kW peak power and 374 mW average power. The corresponding spectrum covers more than two octaves, from below 700 nm up to 3500 nm. Driven by this single-cycle pump, supercontinuum with 180 mW of integrated power and a smooth spectral amplitude between 2100 and 2700 nm is generated directly in silica fibers. To broaden applications,few-cycle pulses extending from 6 $\mu$m to beyond 22 $\mu$m with long-term stable carrier-envelope phase are created using intra-pulse difference frequency, and electro-optic sampling yields comb-tooth-resolved spectra. Our work demonstrates the first all-fiber configuration that generates single-cycle pulses, and provides a practical source to study nonlinear optics on the same timescale.

arXiv commentRevised version

References in corpus (12)

• Attosecond control of electrons emitted from a nanoscale metal tip
• Light-field driven currents in graphene
• Fundamental noise limitations to supercontinuum generation in microstructure fiber
• Direct Frequency Comb Measurement of OD + CO -> DOCO Kinetics
• A six-octave optical frequency comb from a scalable few-cycle erbium fiber laser
• Nanophotonic supercontinuum based mid-infrared dual-comb spectroscopy
• Time-resolved mid-infrared dual-comb spectroscopy
• Methane and Ammonia in the near-infrared spectra of late T dwarfs
• Generating few-cycle pulses with integrated nonlinear photonics
• Three Photon Absorption in Optical Parametric Oscillators Based on OP-GaAs
• Dual-comb spectroscopy with tailored spectral broadening in Si${}_3$N${}_4$ nanophotonics
• Tunable, Stable Source of Femtosecond Pulses Near 2 μm via Supercontinuum of an Erbium Mode-Locked Laser

Cited by in corpus (5)

• A simple approach of broadband mid-infrared pulse generation with a mode-locked Yb-doped fiber laser
• Quasi-real-time dual-comb spectroscopy with 750-MHz Yb:fiber combs
• 783-MHz fundamental repetition rate all-fiber ring laser mode-locked by carbon nanotubes
• Controlling rotationally-resolved two-dimensional infrared spectra with polarization
• Theory of rotationally resolved two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy including polarization dependence and rotational coherence dynamics