Generating few-cycle pulses with integrated nonlinear photonics

Published

December 10, 2019

Author(s)

David Carlson, Phillips Hutchison, Daniel D. Hickstein, Scott Papp

Abstract

Ultrashort laser pulses that last only a few optical cycles have been transformative tools for studying and manipulating ultrafast light--matter interactions. These few-cycle pulses are typically produced from high-peak-power lasers, either directly from the laser oscillator, or through nonlinear effects in bulk or fiber materials. However, for emerging ultrafast applications based on low-power integrated photonics, the few-cycle regime has thus far been unexplored. Here, we experimentally and numerically demonstrate how lithographically patterned waveguides can be used to generate few-cycle laser pulses from an input seed pulse, and we show how they can be applied to the creation of extremely constant-intensity supercontinuum spectra across octave bandwidths. An integrated source of few-cycle pulses could broaden the range of applications for ultrafast light sources, including supporting new lab-on-a-chip systems in a scalable form factor.

Citation

Optics Express

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

frequency comb, integrated photonics, supercontinuum generation, ultrashort pulses

Citation

Carlson, D. , Hutchison, P. , Hickstein, D. and Papp, S. (2019), Generating few-cycle pulses with integrated nonlinear photonics, Optics Express (Accessed October 17, 2025)