Nonlinear optics in hollow-core microstructured fibres
Funded by: Industry, EPSRC, ERC
Nonlinear optics in gas-filled hollow-core microstructured fibres
Microstructured hollow-core fibres, such as anti-resonant guiding fibre, provide a versatile platform for ultrafast experiments, enabling the enhancement of nonlinear effects in gases at high intensity (far beyond the damage threshold of solids) due to tight light confinement over long interaction lengths, with excellent output beam quality. Fine control of the dispersive and nonlinear system properties can be achieved by tailoring the fibre dimensions (core size and length) and by filling the core with gas at an appropriate pressure.
These properties can be exploited for broadband supercontinuum generation, for frequency up-conversion to the ultraviolet when driven by soliton dynamics or four-wave mixing processes, and for flexible on-target delivery of intense near-infrared laser pulses without distortion.
We are currently exploring many of these techniques, with a particular aim of moving this technology outside of research laboratories and into real-world applications, especially in the semiconductor and healthcare sectors.
