The system and method of producing a first path comprising a pulse stretcher for a mid-wave infrared (MWIR) signal, an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) amplifier, and a MWIR compressor for producing a first beam in a MWIR portion of the spectrum and a second path comprising a pulse stretcher for a long wave infrared (LWIR) signal, an OPCPA amplifier, and a LWIR compressor for producing a second beam in a LWIR portion of the spectrum. Each beam, on its own, is configured to produce laser-matter interactions at long range (100s of meters), having nonlinear effects and favoring supercontinuum generation spanning multiple octaves, that is temporally and spatially overlapped with the fundamental laser beam.

A microstructured optical fiber having a length and a longitudinal axis along its length, the finer including a core region capable of guiding light along the longitudinal axis and a cladding region which surrounds the core region, the cladding region comprising a cladding background material and a plurality of cladding features within the cladding background material, the cladding features being arranged around the core region, wherein the cladding region comprises an inner cladding region comprising an innermost ring of cladding features and an outer cladding region comprises outer cladding rings of outer cladding features, the innermost ring consisting of those cladding features being closest to the core region, wherein the rings of cladding features each comprise bridges of cladding background material separating adjacent features of the ring, wherein the bridges of the innermost ring have an average minimum width (w1), the minimum width of a bridge of a ring being the shortest distance between two adjacent features of the ring; and wherein at least one outer cladding ring has an average minimum width (w2) of bridges that is larger than the average minimum width (w1) of the bridges of the innermost ring. Also described are a cascade optical fiber with at least one fiber as described, as well as a source of supercontinuum radiation.

An all-fiber supercontinuum (SC) optical source utilizes a combination of a seed pulse supply of short-duration optical pulses with a highly non-linear optical medium in the form of two or more concatenated sections of highly non-linear optical fiber (HNLF) of different dispersion values and lengths. The two or more sections of HNLF are configured to include at least one section that exhibits a positive dispersion value and one section that exhibits a negative dispersion value. Non-linear effects such as self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (XPM), Raman amplification, and the like, cause the seed pulses to broaden as they propagate through each section of HNLF, where the differences between the dispersion values, as well as the lengths of each fiber section, are particularly configured to create an SC output that is wide and smooth, exhibiting a stable intensity and high coherence level.

A fiber structure includes first and second optical fibers disposed such that end portions thereof butt, a sheet-shaped saturable absorber including a carbon nanotube and disposed between the end portion of the first optical fiber and the end portion of the second optical fiber, and a housing internally accommodating the end portion of the first optical fiber and the end portion of the second optical fiber. A space in the housing including the saturable absorber is airtight.

Methods and devices are described for performing an all-phase measurement of an ultra-fast laser pulse having a spectral range of greater than one octave. The ultra-fast laser pulse may be split into a first beam comprising a fundamental light with a wavelength λ.sub.0 and a second beam comprising a light with a wavelength 2λ.sub.0. The light with the wavelength 2λ.sub.0 may be frequency doubled to a light with a wavelength λ.sub.0 to generate an interference with the fundamental light. Fourier transform may be performed on an interference spectrum of the interference, and a relative envelope delay (RED) between the fundamental light and the frequency doubled light and a carrier envelope phase (CEP) may be acquired based on a result of the Fourier transform.

A hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) assembly for converting input radiation to broadband radiation, the hollow core fiber assembly including: a micro-structured fiber with a hollow core extending along a length of the fiber from an input end configured to receive input radiation to an output end configured to output broadband radiation, wherein the hollow core of the fiber is configured to include a medium; and a density control system configured to control a density profile of the medium along at least a part of the length of the fiber to establish a desired zero dispersion wavelength profile along at least a part of the length of the fiber.

A broadband radiation source device configured for generating a broadband output radiation upon receiving pump radiation, the device including: a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) including at least one structurally varied portion having at least one structural parameter of the HC-PCF varied with respect to one or more main portions of the HC-PCF, wherein the at least one structurally varied portion includes at least a structurally varied portion located downstream of a position along the length of the HC-PCF where the pump radiation will be spectrally expanded by a modulation instability dominated nonlinear optical process, and wherein the at least one structurally varied portion is configured and located such that the broadband output radiation includes wavelengths in the ultraviolet region.

Disclosed by the present invention is an ultra-wideband white noise source based on a slicing super-continuum spectrum. The entropy source used is a super-continuum spectrum photon entropy source having a coverage range of several hundreds of nm, white noise can thus be generated in a wide frequency range, thereby effectively avoiding the bandwidth bottleneck of an electronic device. By separately adjusting the filter centers of two optical filters, the center frequency for generating the white noise can be adjusted so as to get adapted to different working situations. High bandwidth white noise can be generated by simply filtering the super-continuum spectrum and performing photoelectric conversion, and in comparison with the previous solutions, the solution of the present invention is simpler and can be easily implemented.

A method of generating broadband output radiation and associated broadband radiation source. The method includes generating pulses of input radiation having a duration between 50fs and 400fs and having a rise time of less than 60fs; and exciting a working medium within a hollow core fiber with the pulses of input radiation.

In this patent, we teach methods to generate coherent X-ray and UUV rays beams for X ray and UUV microscopes using intense femtosecond pulses resulting the Ultra-Supercontinuum (USC) and Higher Harmonic Generation (HHG) from χ3 and χ.sup.5 media produce from electronic and molecular Kerr effect. The response of n.sub.2 (χ3) and n.sub.4 (χ5) at the optical frequency from instantaneously response of carrier phase of envelope results in odd HHG and spectral broadening about each harmonic on the anti-Stokes side of the pump pulse at wo typically in the visible, NIR, and MIR. From the slower molecular Kerr response on femtosecond to picosecond from orientation and molecular motion on n.sub.2 and n.sub.4 which follow the envelope of optical field of the laser gives rise to extreme broadening without HHG. The resulting spectra extend on the Stokes side towards the IR, RF to DC covering most of the electromagnetic spectrum. These HHG and Super broadening covering UUV to X rays and possibly to gamma ray regime for microscopes.