All-fiber frequency comb at 2 µm providing 1.4-cycle pulses

Abstract

We report an all-fiber approach to generating sub-2-cycle pulses at 2 µm and a corresponding octave-spanning optical frequency comb. Our configuration leverages mature erbium:fiber laser technology at 1.5 µm to provide a seed pulse for a thulium-doped fiber amplifier that outputs 330 mW average power at a 100 MHz repetition rate. Following amplification, nonlinear self-compression in fiber decreases the pulse duration to 9.5 fs, or 1.4 optical cycles. The spectrum of the ultrashort pulse spans from 1 to beyond 2.4 µm and enables direct measurement of the carrier-envelope offset frequency. Our approach employs only commercially available fiber components, resulting in a design that is easy to reproduce in the larger community. As such, this system should be useful as a robust frequency comb source in the near-infrared or as a pump source to generate mid-infrared frequency combs.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 01, 2020
Source ID
10.1364/ol.391486

Entities

People

  • Abijith S. Kowligy
  • Alexander J. Lind
  • Daniel M B Lesko
  • Scott A. Diddams
  • Sida Xing

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Physical Measurement Laboratory

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy