title: Three-octave-spanning supercontinuum generation and sub-two-cycle self-compression of mid-infrared filaments in dielectrics.
abstract: We experimentally and numerically investigate the spectral and temporal structure of mid-infrared (mid-IR) filaments in bulk dielectrics with normal and anomalous group velocity dispersion (GVD) pumped by a 2.1 μm optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA). The formation of stable and robust filaments with several microjoules of pulse energy is observed. We demonstrate a supercontinuum that spans more than three octaves from ZnS in the normal GVD regime and self-compression of the mid-IR pulse to sub-two-cycle duration in CaF2in the anomalous GVD regime. The experimental observations quantitatively agree well with the numerical simulations based on a three-dimensional nonlinear wave equation that reveals the detailed spatio-temporal dynamics of mid-IR filaments in dielectrics.
authors.forename: Houkun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krogen
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grynko
authors.forename: Ondrej
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Novak
authors.forename: Chun-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Gregory J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: Darshana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weerawarne
authors.forename: Bonggu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shim
authors.forename: Franz X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Kärtner
authors.forename: Kyung-Han
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Hong