We present a detailed experimental investigation which uncovers the nature of light bullets generated from self-focusing in a bulk dielectric medium with Kerr nonlinearity in the anomalous group velocity dispersion regime. By high dynamic range measurements of three-dimensional intensity profiles, we demonstrate that the light bullets consist of a sharply localized high-intensity core, which carries the self-compressed pulse and contains approximately 25% of the total energy, and a ring-shaped spatiotemporal periphery. Subdiffractive propagation along with dispersive broadening of the light bullets in free space after they exit the nonlinear medium indicate a strong space-time coupling within the bullet. This finding is confirmed by measurements of a spatiotemporal energy density flux that exhibits the same features as a stationary, polychromatic Bessel beam, thus highlighting the nature of the light bullets.

We report on the generation of ultrabroadband supercontinuum (SC) by filamentation of two optical-cycle, carrier-envelope phase-stable pulses at 2 μm in fused silica, sapphire, CaF₂ and YAG. The SC spectra extend from 450 nm to more than 2500 nm, and their particular shapes depend on dispersive properties of the materials. Prior to spectral super-broadening, we observe third-harmonic generation, which occurs in the condition of large phase and group velocity mismatch and consists of free and driven components. A double-peaked third-harmonic structure coexists with the SC pulse as demonstrated by the numerical simulations and verified experimentally. The SC pulses have stable carrier envelope phase with short-term rms fluctuations of ∼ 300 mrad, as simultaneously measured in YAG crystal by f-2f and f-3f interferometry, where the latter makes use of intrinsic third-harmonic generation.

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We report on the generation of two optical-cycle, carrier-envelope phase-stable pulses with energy of 15 μJ at central wavelength of 2 μm. Pulses of 15 fs (2.3 optical cycles) duration are obtained by difference-frequency generation, which at the same time provides passive carrier-envelope phase stabilization, and noncollinear optical parametric amplification in beta-barium borate crystal, which is shown to provide broad phase-matching bandwidth if seeded by pulses in the 1.6-2.6 μm wavelength range. Pulse compression is achieved by means of a simple propagation through the optical setup and by precisely controlling the initial chirp of the pulses to be frequency downconverted.

We report on the experimental realization of a compact, Ti:sapphire laser-pumped mid-infrared light source, which delivers sub-3 optical cycle pulses in the spectral range. The light source employs difference frequency generation in potassium titanyl arsenate crystal by mixing the signal and idler waves from a commercial near-infrared optical parametric amplifier and subsequent optical parametric amplification in LiIO3 crystal. The amplified sub-100 fs mid-infrared pulses are self-compressed down to sub-3 optical cycles by nonlinear propagation in few mm thick YAG, CaF2 and BaF2 crystals featuring anomalous group velocity dispersion in that spectral range. The self-compression is performed without the onset of self-focusing effects, hence maintaining a homogenous beam profile with energy throughput efficiency of above 90%, yielding the self-compressed pulses with sub- energy. Even larger self-compression factors (down to sub-2 optical cycles) were achieved in the filamentation regime, simultaneously producing an ultrabroadband supercontinuum, extending from the visible to the mid-infrared.

We report an experimental and numerical investigation of third-and fifth-harmonic generation in a CaF 2 crystal with 20 fs (three-optical-cycle), 2 μm driving pulses. The double-peaked temporal profile of the third-harmonic pulse and its propagation dynamics was captured by means of the cross-correlation technique, showing that the third-harmonic pulse naturally consists of free and driven components propagating with different group velocities, and which occur without the splitting of the driving pulse at the fundamental frequency. Relevant characteristics of the harmonics generation process, such as the harmonics spectra, energy oscillations, and conversion efficiency, were measured as functions of propagation length and input-pulse energy and intensity. Our results demonstrate that the fifth harmonic is generated solely via cascaded four-wave mixing between the fundamental and third-harmonic frequency pulses due to cubic nonlinearity, without any detectable contribution of six-wave mixing due to quintic nonlinearity in the process.

We present a series of measurements, which characterize filamentation dynamics of intense ultrashort laser pulses in the space–time domain, as captured by means of three-dimensional imaging technique in sapphire and fused silica, in the wavelength range of 1.45–2.25 μm, accessing the regimes of weak, moderate and strong anomalous group velocity dispersion (GVD). In the regime of weak anomalous GVD (at 1.45 μm), pulse splitting into two sub-pulses producing a pair of light bullets with spectrally shifted carrier frequencies in both nonlinear media is observed. In contrast, in the regimes of moderate (at 1.8 μm) and strong (at 2.25 μm) anomalous GVD we observe notably different transient dynamics, which however lead to the formation of a single self-compressed quasistationary light bullet with an universal spatiotemporal shape comprised of an extended ring-shaped periphery and a localized intense core that carries the self-compressed pulse.

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