Highly efficient deep UV generation by four-wave mixing in gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

We report on a highly efficient experimental scheme for the generation of deep-ultraviolet (UV) ultrashort light pulses using four-wave mixing in gas-filled kagomé-style photonic crystal fiber. By pumping with ultrashort, few microjoule pulses centered at 400 nm, we generate an idler pulse at 266 nm and amplify a seeded signal at 800 nm. We achieve remarkably high pump-to-idler energy conversion efficiencies of up to 38%. Although the pump and seed pulse durations are ∼100  fs, the generated UV spectral bandwidths support sub-15 fs pulses. These can be further extended to support few-cycle pulses. Four-wave mixing in gas-filled hollow-core fibers can be scaled to high average powers and different spectral regions such as the vacuum UV (100–200 nm).