Nonlinear Photonics in Gas-filled Photonic Crystal Fibers

Optical microstructures with truly unique properties have been developed at a fast pace in recent years as a result of the rapid progress in the fabrication techniques. Hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCFs), microstructured waveguides with a two-dimensional periodic cross-section, offer unprecedented advantages that can lead to several fruitful opportunities for demonstrating and better-understanding new physical phenomena in optics. These fibers introduce the photonic bandgap effect in analogy to solid-state physics as an alternative guidance mechanism to the well-known total internal reflection. HC-PCFs have pushed the field of nonlinear fiber optics beyond the interaction of light with solid media. These structures can host strong nonlinear interactions between intense light and gaseous media over a relatively-long propagation distance. Having a wide range of gases with different properties enhances the opportunity to observe distinct novel nonlinear phenomena inside these structures. This can result in developing various novel photonic devices for diverse applications in the near future. In this talk, I will present novel nonlinear applications that are predicted and demonstrated in gas-filled HC-PCFs.