Guiding and high-harmonic generation of sub-10-fs pulses in hollow-core fibers at 10 15 W/cm 2

Abstract

Sub-10-fs laser pulses have been guided in the fundamental transverse mode of a hollow-core fused-silica fiber at intensities of ≈ (1 - 2) × 10¹⁵ W/cm². The high resistance of fused silica to damage in the sub-10-fs regime allows stable reproducible operation without degradation of the capillary waveguide. In preliminary experiments, we demonstrate kHz-repetition-rate guided-wave high-harmonic generation in helium down to the 10-nm range. The reported experiments open up the way to realizing high-field interactions with plane-wave excitation at intensity levels in excess of 10¹⁵ W/cm² under well-controlled conditions. © Springer-Verlag 1998.