Intense 8-fs pulse generation in the deep ultraviolet

By use of the recently developed technique of guided-wave frequency conversion, the generation of sub-10-fs light pulses in the UV has been demonstrated for what is believed to be the first time. Cross-phase modulation of the light in a hollow waveguide produced a bandwidth of 16 nm, with a center frequency of 270 nm, at 1 kHz. A simple grating pair was used to compress the pulses to a duration of 8 fs, as measured by self-diffraction frequency-resolved optical gating. In the experiment the compressed energy was greater than 1 mu J, with a peak power of >100 MW; the technique can be scaled to higher energy. Further improvements should make it possible to generate pulses as short as similar to 3 fs with this technique. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 190.2620, 190.4410, 190.7110, 320.5520, 320.7100, 320.7110.