Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Multi-octave-spanning supercontinuum generation through high-energy laser filaments in YAG and ZnSe pumped by a 2.4 μm femtosecond Cr:ZnSe laser

Journal Article · · High Power Laser Science and Engineering
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2021.1· OSTI ID:1852616
 [1]; ; ; ; ;
  1. OSTI
+ Show Author Affiliations
Abstract

We present experimental and numerical investigations of high-energy mid-infrared filamentation with multi-octave-spanning supercontinuum generation (SCG), pumped by a 2.4 μm, 250 fs Cr:ZnSe chirped-pulse laser amplifier. The SCG is demonstrated in both anomalous and normal dispersion regimes with YAG and polycrystalline ZnSe, respectively. The formation of stable and robust single filaments along with the visible-to-mid-infrared SCG is obtained with a pump energy of up to 100 μJ in a 6-mm-long YAG medium. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the highest-energy multi-octave-spanning SCG from a laser filament in a solid. On the other hand, the SCG and even-harmonic generation based on random quasi-phase matching (RQPM) are simultaneously observed from the single filaments in a 6-mm-long polycrystalline ZnSe medium with a pump energy of up to 15 μJ. The numerical simulations based on unidirectional pulse propagation equation and RQPM show excellent agreement with the measured multi-octave-spanning SCG and even-harmonic generation. They also reveal the temporal structure of mid-infrared filaments, such as soliton-like self-compression in YAG and pulse broadening in ZnSe.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, AL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
SC0018378
OSTI ID:
1852616
Journal Information:
High Power Laser Science and Engineering, Journal Name: High Power Laser Science and Engineering Vol. 9; ISSN 2095-4719
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (34)

Megafilament in air formed by self-guided terawatt long-wavelength infrared laser journal December 2018
Multi-octave supercontinuum generation from mid-infrared filamentation in a bulk crystal journal January 2012
Observation of high-order harmonic generation in a bulk crystal journal December 2010
Ultrafast mid-infrared high harmonic and supercontinuum generation with n 2 characterization in zinc selenide journal January 2019
Multi-octave spanning nonlinear interactions induced by femtosecond filamentation in polycrystalline ZnSe journal June 2017
A spatio-spectral polarization analysis of 1 µm-pumped bulk supercontinuum in a cubic crystal (YAG) journal May 2018
Bright Coherent Ultrahigh Harmonics in the keV X-ray Regime from Mid-Infrared Femtosecond Lasers journal June 2012
Femtosecond measurement of nonlinear absorption and refraction in CdS, ZnSe, and ZnS journal October 1994
Long-wavelength-infrared laser filamentation in solids in the near-single-cycle regime journal January 2020
Mid-infrared laser filaments in air at a kilohertz repetition rate journal January 2016
90 GW peak power few-cycle mid-infrared pulses from an optical parametric amplifier journal January 2011
Multi-mJ, kHz, 21  μm optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier and high-flux soft x-ray high-harmonic generation journal January 2014
Perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of optical filamentation in bulk dielectric media journal January 2008
Random quasi-phase-matching in bulk polycrystalline isotropic nonlinear materials journal November 2004
Octave-spanning mid-infrared femtosecond OPA in a ZnGeP 2 pumped by a 24 μm Cr:ZnSe chirped-pulse amplifier journal January 2020
Refractive Index of ZnSe, ZnTe, and CdTe journal March 1964
Generation of 1  kHz, 23  mJ, 88  fs, 25  μm pulses from a Cr 2+ :ZnSe chirped pulse amplifier journal January 2018
Generation of Light in Media with a Random Distribution of Nonlinear Domains journal July 2006
Progress in Mid-IR Lasers Based on Cr and Fe-Doped II–VI Chalcogenides journal January 2015
Ultrafast middle-IR lasers and amplifiers based on polycrystalline Cr:ZnS and Cr:ZnSe journal January 2017
Characterization of high-harmonic emission from ZnO up to 11  eV pumped with a Cr:ZnS high-repetition-rate source journal January 2019
Nonlinear optical pulse propagation simulation: From Maxwell’s to unidirectional equations journal September 2004
Super high power mid-infrared femtosecond light bullet journal July 2015
Self-Guided Propagation of Ultrashort Laser Pulses in the Anomalous Dispersion Region of Transparent Solids: A New Regime of Filamentation journal March 2013
Self-compression to sub-3-cycle duration of mid-infrared optical pulses in dielectrics journal January 2013
Dispersion of bound electron nonlinear refraction in solids journal June 1991
Refractive-index measurements of undoped yttrium aluminum garnet from 04 to 50 μm journal January 1998
Inhibition of multi-filamentation of high-power laser beams journal January 2016
Wavelength-scaled laser filamentation in solids and plasma-assisted subcycle light-bullet generation in the long-wavelength infrared journal August 2018
Mid-infrared laser filaments in the atmosphere journal February 2015
Ultrabroadband supercontinuum and third-harmonic generation in bulk solids with two optical-cycle carrier-envelope phase-stable pulses at 2 μm journal January 2013
Broadband mid-infrared coverage (2–17  μm) with few-cycle pulses via cascaded parametric processes journal January 2019
Multi-octave supercontinuum generation in YAG pumped by mid-infrared, multi-picosecond pulses journal January 2018
Three-octave-spanning supercontinuum generation and sub-two-cycle self-compression of mid-infrared filaments in dielectrics journal January 2015

Similar Records

Related Subjects

Optics