Single 10-fs deep-ultraviolet pulses generated by broadband four-wave mixing and high-order dispersion compensation

Abstract

Broadband chirped-pulse four-wave mixing and a pulse compressor consisting of a prism pair and a grating pair are used to generate 10.3-fs deep-ultraviolet pulses. A large proportion of the dispersion up to 1000 fs(2) is compensated without inducing third-order dispersion, which together with the smooth spectral and temporal profiles of the pulses makes them suitable for ultrafast spectroscopy. Unexpected spectral narrowing is observed when short input pulses were used for four-wave mixing. This narrowing is explained in terms of other third-order nonlinear phenomena, namely self-phase and cross-phase modulations, which occur simultaneously with four-wave mixing.