Efficient laser sources of mid-infrared (MIR, λ > 2 μm) radiation are of paramount importance in a plethora of different scientific fields such as biomedicine, spectroscopy, materials science or strong-field physics. Ultrafast fiber lasers, in particular, have recently attracted major interest since they are very compact and reliable alternatives to standard solid-state bulk systems.

In this work, Gladyshev and co-authors report the generation of 2.68 μm MIR pulses based on stimulated Raman scattering in a deuterium-filled hollow-core microstructured fiber. Although the fiber is made of pure silica glass, which exhibits very high material absorption in the MIR, a remarkably low fraction of core-guided light localised in the glass makes this system ideally suited for MIR generation and guidance. Using chirped pump pulses at 1.03 μm, a double-cascaded Raman scattering process allows for the emission of MIR pulses with 10 μJ of energy and estimated sub-picosecond duration. These results, in combination with the recent impressive developments in manufacturing of ultralow-loss hollow-core fibers, open the door to a new generation of compact ultrafast mid-infrared laser sources that might outperform other existing approaches.

---

---

 Add Comment

You must log in to add comments.