Kavli Affiliate: Alireza Marandi
| First 5 Authors: Robert M. Gray, Ryoto Sekine, Maximilian Shen, Thomas Zacharias, James Williams
| Summary:
Few- and single-cycle optical pulses and their associated ultra-broadband
spectra have been crucial in the progress of ultrafast science and technology.
Multi-color waveforms composed of independently manipulable ultrashort pulses
in distinct spectral bands offer unique advantages in pulse synthesis and high
harmonic generation. However, the generation and control of ultrashort pulses
has required bulky optical systems at the tabletop scale. Quadratic soliton
compression theoretically offers a direct route to generation of few-cycle,
two-color pulses but is fundamentally limited in bulk systems by the
unavoidable presence of walk-off between the fundamental and second harmonic
waves. Here, we show that the dispersion engineering capabilities of
nanophotonics allow these limitations to be overcome, enabling extreme
simultaneous pulse compression of the fundamental and second harmonic
components and control over the resultant pulse shape. We experimentally
demonstrate quadratic soliton pulse compression in dispersion-engineered
nanophotonic lithium niobate waveguides and achieve two-optical-cycle pulses
requiring pJ pump pulse energies. We further illustrate how the demonstrated
compression scheme can be readily extended to on-chip single-cycle pulse
synthesis. When integrated with femtosecond and picosecond sources in lithium
niobate, our results provide a path towards realization of single-cycle
ultrafast systems in nanophotonic circuits.
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