Supercontinuum generation in scintillator crystals.

We present a comparative experimental study of supercontinuum generation in undoped scintillator crystals: bismuth germanate (BGO), yttrium orthosilicate (YSO), lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO), lutetium yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) and gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG), pumped by 180 fs fundamental harmonic pulses of an amplified Yb:KGW laser. In addition to these materials, experiments in yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG), potassium gadolinium tungstate (KGW) and lithium tantalate (LT) were performed under identical experimental settings (focusing geometry and sample thickness), which served for straightforward comparison of supercontinuum generation performances. The threshold and optimal (that produces optimized red-shifted spectral extent) pump pulse energies for supercontinuum generation were evaluated from detailed measurements of spectral broadening dynamics.

Low-threshold supercontinuum generation in a homogeneous bulk material at 76 MHz pulse repetition rate.

We report on high average power, low threshold supercontinuum generation in a homogeneous bulk material at 76 MHz pulse repetition rate with amplified as well as unamplified pulses from a Yb:KGW oscillator. An octave-spanning supercontinuum was produced in undoped potassium gadolinium tungstate (KGW), which demonstrated robust, damage-free long-term performance with a total average pump power of 6.4 W.

KGW and YVO: two excellent nonlinear materials for high repetition rate infrared supercontinuum generation.

We present an experimental investigation of supercontinuum generation in potassium gadolinium tungstate (KGW) and yttrium vanadate (YVO) crystals pumped with 210 fs, 1030 nm pulses from an amplified Yb:KGW laser operating at 2 MHz repetition rate. We demonstrate that compared to commonly used sapphire and YAG, these materials possess considerably lower supercontinuum generation thresholds, produce remarkable red-shifted spectral broadenings (up to 1700 nm in YVO and up to 1900 nm in KGW) and exhibit less bulk heating due to energy deposition during filamentation process. Moreover, durable damage-free performance was observed without any translation of the sample, suggesting that KGW and YVO are excellent nonlinear materials for high repetition rate supercontinuum generation in the near and short-wave infrared spectral range.

High repetition rate green-pumped supercontinuum generation in calcium fluoride.

We compare supercontinuum generation in [Formula: see text] crystal under tight and loose focusing of 150 fs, 515 nm second harmonic pulses from an amplified Yb:KGW laser at a repetition rate of 10 kHz. It is demonstrated that supercontinuum generation geometry applying loose focusing ([Formula: see text]) of the pump beam into a long (25 mm) [Formula: see text] sample is advantageous in terms of supercontinuum spectral extent and durability of damage-free operation of the nonlinear material as compared to a commonly used supercontinuum generation setup which employs tight focusing ([Formula: see text]) into a short (5 mm) sample and to setup which uses tight focusing into a long (25 mm) sample. More specifically, loose focusing into a long sample showed remarkably longer (20 min) damage-free operation of the nonlinear material, which was not translated with respect of the pump beam, while in tight focusing condition the sample is damaged just within 2 min of operation, leading to a complete extinction of the supercontinuum spectrum.