Optimal pulse compression in long hollow fibers

The spectral broadening performance of 1 m and 3 m long hollow fibers are compared. The 3 m capillary clearly outperforms the 1 m one in terms of both transmission and achievable spectral broadening. Starting from 1: 1 mJ 71 fs pulses at 780 nm, a spectral broadening ratio of 26 was achieved using a single 3 m long argon-filled hollow fiber. After compression the measured pulse duration was 4: 5 fs corresponding to a compression ratio of 16 at an energy of 0.42 mJ. Both the pulse duration and the pulse energy were limited by the applied chirped mirrors. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America