Sub-two-cycle soliton-effect pulse compression at 800 nm in photonic crystal fibers

The possibility of soliton self-compression of ultrashort laser pulses down to the few-cycle regime in photonic crystal fibers is numerically investigated. We show that efficient sub-two-cycle temporal compression of nanojoule-level 800 nm pulses can be achieved by employing short (typically 5 mm long) commercially available photonic crystal fibers and pulse durations of around 100 fs, regardless of initial linear chirp, and without the need of additional dispersion compensation techniques. We envision applications in a new generation of compact and efficient sub-two cycle laser pulse sources. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America