In the Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics (UNO) team we focus on nonlinear optics with ultrafast laser pulses on a femtosecond time scale.
We investigate nonlinear optical phenomena with ultrafast femtosecond pulses, where the excitation of temporal solitons in bulk media or optical waveguides and fibers allow achieving efficient frequency conversion, pulse compression and supercontinuum generation. Our main focus is solitons generated in quadratic nonlinear crystals through cascaded (phase-mismatched) frequency conversion processes. This gives access to a unique self-defocusing nonlinearity that has many advantages compared to traditional self-focusing four-wave mixing processes, in particular that it is inherently filament free. We are currently exploring new opportunities in the mid-IR range (2-20 micron) for supercontinuum generation and pulse compression of high energy pulses (in bulk crystals) or high-repetition rate low energy pulses (waveguides). We also investigate new hollow-core fibers for broadband handling, transmission and nonlinear interaction of near to mid-IR pulses in gas-filled fibers.
Link to UNO team