Open AccessSpectral reshaping and pulse compression via sequential filamentation in gases
Author(s) -
Luat T. Vuong,
Rodrigo López-Martens,
Christoph P. Hauri,
Alexander L. Gaeta
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.16.000390
Subject(s) - filamentation , pulse compression , optics , pulse (music) , pulse shaping , materials science , compression (physics) , ultrashort pulse , self phase modulation , spectral line , physics , laser , nonlinear optics , telecommunications , computer science , radar , astronomy , detector , composite material
We provide a theoretical description of the spatio-temporal dynamics of sequential filamentation in noble gases that can lead to pulse compression down to nearly single-cycle pulses. We show that the strong pulse compression occurs as a result of serially-generated on-axis filaments and spectral filtering of an extensive blue-shifted compressible spectra. We show that the dynamics of this sequential filamentation can be readily tuned by varying the gas pressure and can be scaled to various pulse energies.