High-brightness source of coherent light spanning from the UV to THz

Phys.org  December 14, 2020
Hyperspectral spectroscopy and imaging techniques have proven to be very useful in applications related to food inspection, biochemical sensing or even in cultural heritage, to investigate the structure of the materials used for ancient objects, paintings, or sculptures. A standing challenge has been the absence of compact sources that cover such large spectral range with sufficient brightness. An international team of researchers (Spain, Germany, Russia) has developed a compact high-brightness mid-IR-driven source combining a gas-filled anti-resonant-ring photonic crystal fiber with a novel nonlinear-crystal. The tabletop source provides a seven-octave coherent spectrum from 340 nm to 40,000 nm with spectral brightness 2-5 orders of magnitude higher than one of the brightest Synchrotron facilities. Future research will leverage the few-cycle pulse duration of the source for the time-domain analysis of substances and materials, thus opening new opportunities for multimodal measurement approaches in areas such as molecular spectroscopy, physical chemistry, or solid-state physics…read more. TECHNCAL ARTICLE

Artistic impression of the spectrum of a mid-infrared pulse broadening in the background with the electric field of the generated pulse. Credit: ICFO/L.Maidment, U. Elu & J. Biegert

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