High-energy ultraviolet dispersive-wave emission in compact hollow capillary systems

Abstract

We demonstrate high-energy resonant dispersive-wave emission in the deep ultraviolet (218 to 375 nm) from optical solitons in short (15 to 34cm) hollow capillary fibres. This down-scaling in length compared to previous results in capillaries is achieved by using small core diameters (100 and 150 $\mu$m) and pumping with 6.3 fs pulses at 800 nm. We generate pulses with energies of 4 to 6 $\mu$J across the deep ultraviolet in a 100 $\mu$m capillary and up to 11 $\mu$J in a 150 $\mu$m capillary. From comparisons to simulations we estimate the ultraviolet pulse to be 2 to 2.5 fs in duration. We also numerically study the influence of pump duration on the bandwidth of the dispersive wave.