Ultrafast photonic-crystal fiber light flash for streak-camera fluorescence measurements

Abstract

Photonic-crystal fibers (PCFs) provide a high efficiency of frequency upconversion of femtosecond Cr: forsterite laser pulses through the emission of dispersive waves by solitons and third-harmonic generation. Dispersion management allows the central wavelength of the frequency-upconverted signal in PCF output to be tuned within the range of wavelengths from 400 to 900 nm. PCF frequency shifters are employed as excitation sources for time-resolved fluorescence streak-camera measurements on fluorescein solution.

Photonic-crystal-fiber solutions for ultrafast chromium forsterite laser technologies

“…Highly efficient thirdharmonic generation (THG) has been recently observed in fused silica [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]120] and multicomponent-glass PCFs [44,45], as well as in tapered fibers [121]. THG-based PCF sources of short-wavelength radiation have been recently shown [122] to be a convenient and powerful tool for timeresolved fluorescence studies on a broad class of organic molecules.…”

Soft-glass photonic-crystal fibers for frequency shifting and white-light spectral superbroadening of femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser pulses

“…Although such a level of optical losses will still be substantially higher than the minimum loss levels below decibel per kilometer attainable with fused-silica PCFs, 1 frequency upconversion provided by multicomponent-glass PCFs presented here, resulting in the generation of intense spectral components in the visible, offers attractive solutions for coherent nonlinear spectroscopy 17 and microscopy, 18 as well as for time-resolved spectroscopic measurements. 41 Because of PCF losses and the low incoupling efficiency (about 10%), high-input powers were needed in our measurements, requiring the use of a Cr-:forsterite amplifier, for efficient spectral transformations of Cr:forsterite laser pulses. Even with these problems remaining to be resolved, multicomponent-glass PCFs can enhance spectral transformations of Cr:forsterite laser pulses relative to silica PCFs, as the former fibers can simultaneously provide a suitable dispersion regime (Fig.…”