Highly stable, flexible delivery of microjoule-level ultrafast pulses in vacuumized anti-resonant hollow-core fibers for active synchronization

Abstract

We demonstrate the stable and flexible light delivery of multi-microjoule, sub-200-fs pulses over a ∼10-m-long vacuumized anti-resonant hollow-core fiber (AR-HCF), which was successfully used for high-performance pulse synchronization. Compared with the pulse train launched into the AR-HCF, the transmitted pulse train out of the fiber exhibits excellent stabilities in pulse power and spectrum, with pointing stability largely improved. The walk-off between the fiber-delivery and the other free-space-propagation pulse trains, in an open loop, was measured to be <6 fs root mean square (rms) over 90 minutes, corresponding to a relative optical-path variation of <2 × 10−7. This walk-off can be further suppressed to ∼2 fs rms simply by using an active control loop, highlighting the great application potentials of this AR-HCF setup in large-scale laser and accelerator facilities.

Timing fluctuation correction for the front end of a 100-PW laser

“…Therefore, the measurement and control accuracies are limited in experiments. Recently, we have stably and flexibly delivered multi-μJ, sub-200-fs pulses in an approximately 10-m-long vacuum antiresonant HCF, which has been successfully used for high-power pulses synchronization and demonstrated its excellent immunity to environmental perturbations [ 39 ] .…”

Ultrahigh Transverse Mode Purity by Enhanced Modal Filtering in Double‐Clad Single‐Ring Hollow‐Core Photonic Crystal Fiber

“…Hollow-core photonic crystal fiber guided by anti-resonant-reflection, [1] especially in its single-ring form [2][3][4][5][6] has attracted increasing interest over the past decade. Its remarkable advantages, for example, extremely low fiber nonlinearity, pressure-controllable dispersion, high laser damage threshold, and enhanced immunity to thermal fluctuations, make it of great interest for gas-based nonlinear optics, [7][8][9] delivery of high-power laser light, [10][11][12][13] and in its lowest loss form, for applications such as ultrahigh-bandwidth communication between data-centers. [14][15][16] Improving the mode purity of transmitted light is crucial in many practical applications of hollow-core fiber.…”

Negative curvature hollow core fiber-functionalized cascaded structure for curvature sensing

“…Anti-resonant negative curvature HCF (NCHCF) is a distinctive type of optical fiber distinguished by its central hollow region, which facilitates the efficient and high-speed transmission of light. Which can employ various guiding mechanisms, including photonic bandgap [5], anti-resonance [6] or inhibited coupling [7], to achieve optimal optical guidance. NCHCF has a micro-structured cladding of a ring of capillaries surrounding the hollow core.…”