Design and fabrication of hollow-core photonic crystal fibers for high power fast laser beam transportation and pulse compression

Yingying Wang (1, 2) , X. Peng (3) , Meshaal Alharbi (1) , Coralie Fourcade Dutin (2) , Tom Bradley (1) , Frédéric Gérôme (2) , M. Mielke (3) , Timothy Booth (3) , Fetah A. Benabid (1, 2)

1 University of Bath [Bath]
2 XLIM-PHOTONIQUE - PHOTONIQUE
3 Radiance

We report on the recent design and fabrication of kagome-type hollow-core photonic crystal fibers for the purpose of high-power ultrashort pulse transportation. The fabricated seven-cell three-ring hypocycloid-shaped large core fiber exhibits an up-to-date lowest attenuation (among all kagome fibers) of 40 dB/km over a broadband transmission centered at 1500 nm. We show that the large core size, low attenuation, broadband transmission, single-mode guidance, and low dispersion make it an ideal host for high-power laser beam transportation. By filling the fiber with helium gas, a 74 μJ, 850 fs, and 40 kHz repetition rate ultrashort pulse at 1550 nm has been faithfully delivered at the fiber output with little propagation pulse distortion. Compression of a 105 μJ laser pulse from 850 fs down to 300 fs has been achieved by operating the fiber in ambient air.

Domaines: Optique / photonique

Yingying Wang, X. Peng, Meshaal Alharbi, Coralie Fourcade Dutin, Tom Bradley, et al.. Design and fabrication of hollow-core photonic crystal fibers for high power fast laser beam transportation and pulse compression. Optics Letters, 2012, 37 (15), pp.3111. ⟨hal-00923884⟩