title: Multioctave, 3-18  μm sub-two-cycle supercontinua from self-compressing, self-focusing soliton transients in a solid.
abstract: Strongly coupled nonlinear spatiotemporal dynamics of ultrashort mid-infrared pulses undergoing self-focusing simultaneously with soliton self-compression in an anomalously dispersive, highly nonlinear solid semiconductor is shown to enable the generation of multioctave supercontinua with spectra spanning the entire mid-infrared range and compressible to subcycle pulse widths. With 7.9 μm, 150 fs, 2 μJ, 1 kHz pulses used as a driver, 1.2 cycle pulses of mid-infrared supercontinuum radiation with a spectrum spanning the range of wavelengths from 3 to 18 μm were generated in a 5 mm GaAs plate. Further compression of these pulses to subcycle pulse widths is possible through compensation of the residual phase shift.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Lanin
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Voronin
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Stepanov
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Fedotov
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Zheltikov