We report on the recent design and fabrication of kagome-type hollow-core photonic crystal fibers for the purpose of high-power ultrashort pulse transportation. The fabricated seven-cell three-ring hypocycloid-shaped large core fiber exhibits an up-to-date lowest attenuation (among all kagome fibers) of 40 dB/km over a broadband transmission centered at 1500 nm. We show that the large core size, low attenuation, broadband transmission, single-mode guidance, and low dispersion make it an ideal host for high-power laser beam transportation. By filling the fiber with helium gas, a 74 μJ, 850 fs, and 40 kHz repetition rate ultrashort pulse at 1550 nm has been faithfully delivered at the fiber output with little propagation pulse distortion. Compression of a 105 μJ laser pulse from 850 fs down to 300 fs has been achieved by operating the fiber in ambient air.

We demonstrate high average power, high energy 1.55 μm ultra-short pulse (<1 ps) laser delivery using helium-filled and argon-filled large mode area hollow core photonic band-gap fibers and compare relevant performance parameters. The ultra-short pulse laser beam-with pulse energy higher than 7 μJ and pulse train average power larger than 0.7 W-is output from a 2 m long hollow core fiber with diffraction limited beam quality. We introduce a pulse tuning mechanism of argon-filled hollow core photonic band-gap fiber. We assess the damage threshold of the hollow core photonic band-gap fiber and propose methods to further increase pulse energy and average power handling.

The integration of dissimilar materials in heterostructures has long been a cornerstone of modern materials science—seminal examples are 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures. Recently, new methods have been developed that enable the realization of ultrathin freestanding oxide films approaching the 2D limit. Oxides offer new degrees of freedom, due to the strong electronic interactions, especially the 3d orbital electrons, which give rise to rich exotic phases. Inspired by this progress, a new platform for assembling freestanding oxide thin films with different materials and orientations into artificial stacks with heterointerfaces is developed. It is shown that the oxide stacks can be tailored by controlling the stacking sequences, as well as the twist angle between the constituent layers with atomically sharp interfaces, leading to distinct moiré patterns in the transmission electron microscopy images of the full stacks. Stacking and twisting is recognized as a key degree of structural freedom in 2D materials but, until now, has never been realized for oxide materials. This approach opens unexplored avenues for fabricating artificial 3D oxide stacking heterostructures with freestanding membranes across a broad range of complex oxide crystal structures with functionalities not available in conventional 2D materials.

No abstract

Phase contrast atomic force microscopy shows how tungsten diselenide oxidation evolves into complex patterns over 75 months, following season-dependent changes in the laboratory environment, in analogy with tree-rings in nature.