Soliton Self-Compression in Air Filled Kagome HCPCF

Hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HCPCF) proved to be a powerful platform for optical pulse compression. Several results, reported in the last few years, show both exceptional compression performances over a large energy dynamic range and varied experimental conditions [1][2][3], and new physical dynamics [4]. Among the reported performances, we list those achieved with Inhibited-Coupling guiding HCPCF (IC-HCPCF), and where soliton self-compression down to the single or a few cycle regime were achieved with a ~1.8 μm wavelength and 80 fs duration input-pulse [1], and with a 790 nm wavelength and 24 fs duration input-pulse [2]. Conversely, the low values and spectral profile of the IC-HCPCF dispersion, combined with its fine control through a judicious choice of a filling gas, enabled the observation of several nonlinear optical regimes as varied as modulation instability, self-phase modulation, supercontinuum generation, or plasma-induced soliton blue-shift and fission. Remarkably, in the latter regime, experimental and theoretical results show that soliton-plasma interaction and its high sensitivity to the input laser and IC-HCPCF parameters are overarching several novel solitonic phenomena[4]-[6] such as strong soliton self-compression, blue and red frequency-shift and fission.