Near two-photon resonance short pulse compression in atomic noble gases

We simulate a pulse compression mechanism based on a near two-photon resona nce (NTPR) transition contribution to the nonlinear refractive index of ato mic Noble gas filled hollow waveguides, The negative refractive index contr ibution in the normal dispersive gas waveguide plays a similar role as in t he case of soliton compression with positive Kerr nonlinearity and anomalou s dispersion in optical fibers. The sell-pulse compression to similar to 15 fs can be achieved at moderate peak powers (similar to MW) for 100 fs puls es in the spectral range 100-245 nm. We present simulated data concerning p ulse and spectral shapes for xenon as a case study. The total throughput of the propagated pulse energy is > 90%, mostly determined by the linear atte nuation of the hollow waveguide propagation mode while two-photon absorptio n and the corresponding enhanced three-photon photo-ionization does not sig nificantly reduce the pulse energy. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.