Intense self-compressed, self-phase-stabilized few-cycle pulses at 2 microm from an optical filament.
We report the compression of intense, carrier-envelope phase stable mid-IR pulses down to few-cycle duration using an optical filament. A filament in xenon gas is formed by using self-phase stabilized 330 microJ 55 fs pulses at 2 microm produced via difference-frequency generation in a Ti:sapphire-pumped optical parametric amplifier. The ultrabroadband 2 microm carrier-wavelength output is self-compressed below 3 optical cycles and has a 270 microJ pulse energy. The self-locked phase offset of the 2 microm difference-frequency field is preserved after filamentation. This is to our knowledge the first experimental realization of pulse compression in optical filaments at mid-IR wavelengths (lambda>0.8 microm).
Hauri
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Laboratorie d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS UMR 7639, Palaiseau, France. hauri@ensta.fr
Lopez-Martens
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Blaga
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Schultz
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Cryan
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Chirla
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Colosimo
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Doumy
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March
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Roedig
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Sistrunk
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Tate
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Wheeler
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Dimauro
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Power
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