Compression of ultrashort laser pulses in planar hollow waveguides: a stability analysis

We investigate compression of ultrashort laser pulses by nonlinear propagation in gas-filled planar hollow waveguides, using (3+1)-dimensional numerical simulations. In this geometry, the laser beam is guided with a fixed size in one transverse dimension, generating significant spectral broadening, while it propagates freely in the other, allowing for energy up-scalability. In this respect the concept outperforms compression techniques based on hollow core fibers or filamentation. Small-scale self-focusing is a crucial consideration, which introduces mode deterioration and finally break-up in multiple filaments. The simulation results, which match well with initial experiments, provide important guidelines for scaling the few-cycle pulse generation to higher energies. Pulse compression down to few-cycle duration with energies up to 100mJ levels should be possible. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America