Ultrafast optics & instrumentation

Mar 23, 2019

Funded by: EPSRC, ERC

New techniques for the characterization and application of ultrafast optical pulses

We are continuously developing new ultrafast science and technology. Including

  • Fundamental dynamical studies of ultrafast material response to laser pulses
  • Imagining and testing new ideas in ultrafast nonlinear optics, such as
    • New frequency conversion, pulse compression and mode-locking techniques
    • Investigating novel soliton dynamics, such as their interaction with plasma, Raman-active molecules and strong-field effects
    • Studying new regimes of ultrafast Raman interaction and four-wave mixing in gases
  • Developing new strategies for CEP stabilization
  • Work on high power fiber amplifier systems to pump OPCPAs
  • Designing pulse and spectral characterization devices spanning the soft-Xray to Mid-IR range

For information of some of the characterisation devices and ultrafast optical beam-line technology we have developed, see our facilities section.

Publications

Near-zero-index ultra-fast pulse characterization
Transparent conducting oxides exhibit giant optical nonlinearities in the near-infrared window where their linear index approaches …
PDF Project DOI
Intense few-cycle visible pulses directly generated via nonlinear fibre mode mixing
Extremely short, high-energy pulses are essential in modern ultrafast science. In a seminal paper in 19961, Nisoli and co-workers …
PDF Project DOI
Ultrafast circularly polarized pulses tunable from the vacuum to deep ultraviolet
We experimentally demonstrate the efficient generation of circularly polarized pulses tunable from the vacuum to deep ultraviolet …
PDF Project Project DOI
Infrared attosecond field transients and UV to IR few-femtosecond pulses generated by high-energy soliton self-compression
Infrared femtosecond laser pulses are important tools both in strong-field physics, driving x-ray high-harmonic generation, and as the …
Preprint PDF Project Project DOI
Generation of broadband circularly polarized deep-ultraviolet pulses in hollow capillary fibers
We demonstrate an efficient scheme for the generation of broadband, high-energy, circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses in the …
Preprint PDF Project DOI
Resonant dispersive wave emission in hollow capillary fibers filled with pressure gradients
Resonant dispersive wave (RDW) emission in gas-filled hollow waveguides is a powerful technique for the generation of bright …
Preprint PDF Project Project DOI
Generation of 1.5 cycle pulses at 780 nm at oscillator repetition rates with stable carrier-envelope phase
We demonstrate a spectral broadening and compression setup for carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stable sub-10-fs Ti:sapphire oscillator …
PDF Project Project DOI
Highly Efficient Deep UV Generation by Four-Wave Mixing in Gas-Filled Hollow Core Photonic Crystal Fiber
We report on a highly-efficient experimental scheme for the generation of deep-ultraviolet ultrashort light pulses using four-wave …
Preprint PDF Project Project DOI
High-energy ultraviolet dispersive-wave emission in compact hollow capillary systems
We demonstrate high-energy resonant dispersive-wave emission in the deep ultraviolet (218 to 375 nm) from optical solitons in short (15 …
Preprint PDF Project Project DOI
High-energy pulse self-compression and ultraviolet generation through soliton dynamics in hollow capillary fibres
Optical soliton dynamics can cause extreme alteration of the temporal and spectral shape of a propagating light pulse. This occurs at …
Preprint PDF Project Project DOI
Direct characterization of tuneable few-femtosecond dispersive-wave pulses in the deep UV
Dispersive wave emission (DWE) in gas-filled hollow-core dielectric waveguides is a promising source of tuneable coherent and broadband …
Preprint PDF Project Project DOI
Extremely broadband single-shot cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating using a transient grating as gate and dispersive element
A cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) concept, potentially suitable for characterizing few or sub-cycle pulses …
PDF Project DOI
Characterization of few-fs deep-UV dispersive waves by ultra-broadband transient-grating XFROG
A multi-shot transient-grating cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) is implemented for the characterization of …
PDF Project Project DOI

Events

Temporal Characterization of Sub-3-fs, µJ-level Deep UV Pulses Generated by Resonant Dispersive Wave Emission
The generation of few-femtoseconds laser pulses in the Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) spectral region (200-300 nm) is crucial for the …
Jun 26, 2023 09:00 CLEO/Europe 2023, Munich, Germany
PDF Project Project
Some peculiar nonlinear dynamics in gas-filled hollow-core fibres
Oct 25, 2022 14:42 Workshop on Nonlinear Photonics and Applications, Helsinki (2022)
Project Project Project
Ultrafast nonlinear optics in gas-filled hollow-fibres
Hollow-core waveguide technology enables the creation of new light sources based on guided nonlinear optical interactions of ultrafast …
Sep 1, 2022 14:45 Photon 2022, Nottingham, UK
Project Project Project
Direct Generation of 4-GW Few-Cycle Visible Pulses in a Large-Core Capillary Fiber
Jul 18, 2022 14:56 International Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena 2022, Montreal, Quebec Canada
PDF Project
Multimodal hollow-core fibers: a new route for few-cycle visible pulse generation
Ultrashort high-energy visible pulses have enabled unprecedented opportunities in temporally resolving ultrafast dynamics in physics, …
May 30, 2022 15:01 SPIE Photonics Europe 2022, Strasbourg, France
PDF Project
Frequency tuneable sub-15 fs pulses from a gas-filled hollow-core fiber pumped by a commercial Yb laser
We report the generation and temporal characterization of wavelength-tunable sub-15 fs pulses from a commercial 220 fs Yb laser, in a …
May 15, 2022 15:27 CLEO 2022, San Jose, California United States
PDF Project Project
4-GW Few-Cycle Visible Pulse Generation via Fiber Mode Mixing
Starting from 175-fs-long pulses at 1035 nm, we directly generate 20 μJ, 4.6 fs visible pulses through the nonlinear mixing between the …
May 15, 2022 15:24 CLEO 2022, San Jose, California United States
PDF Project
Few-Cycle Visible Light Generation in a Hollow-Core Fiber
175-fs-long pulses emitted by a commercial Yb-based laser are directly projected into the single-cycle regime at visible frequencies …
Nov 1, 2021 16:27 Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science 2021, Washington, DC United States
PDF Project
Generation of Broadband Circularly Polarized Deep-Ultraviolet Pulses in Hollow Capillary Fibers
We demonstrate an efficient scheme (> 30%) for the generation of ultra-short circularly polarized pulses in the deep ultraviolet …
May 10, 2020 16:42 CLEO, QELS_Fundamental Science 2020, Washington, DC United States
PDF Project
Broadband Ultraviolet Generation with 50% Conversion Efficiency in Hollow Capillary Fibers
We demonstrate broadband wavelength up-conversion (240-320 nm) based on a seeded four-wave mixing scheme in gas-filled stretched …
May 10, 2020 16:39 CLEO 2020, Washington, DC United States
PDF Project
Strong and weak seeded four-wave mixing in stretched gas-filled hollow capillary fibers
We report a remarkably efficient experimental scheme for the generation of high energy ultra-short pulses by means of four-wave mixing …
Oct 7, 2019 11:45 Ultrafast Optics XII (2019), Bol, Croatia
Project
Soliton Self-Compression in Hollow Capillary Fibres
We demonstrate soliton self-compression of 0.3 mJ pulses to 2.7 fs in a 3 m long gas-filled hollow capillary fibre. Scaling to higher …
Jun 23, 2019 18:30 CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2019, ICM Centre, Room 2 Hall A1, Munich, Germany
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