Harnessing Light Quanta with Fibre-based Molecular Modulators

The manipulation of the frequency content of arbitrary optical signals is of paramount importance in many disparate fields. This is usually achieved using nonlinear optical effects in bulk media such as crystals or gas cells, which restricts the degree of applicability of these techniques due to limitations in e.g. transparency, dispersion, nonlinearity strength and damage threshold. As an alternative to these common free-space arrangements, we will present a universal class of optical modulators based on hydrogen-filled hollow antiresonant fibres with an unprecedented operational range from the ultraviolet to the THz, and capable of handling both classical signals with large photon numbers, as well as quantum light states down to the single-photon limit. The overall performance of these fibre-based molecular modulators can be conveniently scaled through certain characteristic lengths, which makes them versatile means of broadband frequency translation under different conditions.