Compression of 1.8 μm laser pulses to sub two optical cycles with bulk material

Abstract

We demonstrate a simple scheme to generate 0.4 mJ 11.5 fs laser pulses at 1.8 μm. Optical parametrically amplified pulses are spectrally broadened by nonlinear propagation in an argon-filled hollow-core fiber and subsequently compressed to 1.9 optical cycles by linear propagation through bulk material in the anomalous dispersion regime. This pulse compression scheme is confirmed through numerical simulations.