Abstract

Nonlinear compression has become a routine tool for pulse shortening of oscillator and amplifier systems. Depending on the pulse energy and peak power of the input pulses, solid core fibers or gas-filled hollow waveguides, such as Kagome photonic crystal fibers or capillaries, are employed for achieving the spectral broadening. In particular, they have recently shown impressive average power levels of more than 100 W [1,2,3] making them an attractive source for high repetition rate and average power applications in high-field science, such as high harmonic generation [4]. Despite this progress it remained unclear whether hollow waveguides can be operated with kilowatt average power.

© 2015 IEEE