Harmonic generation and wave mixing in polybore hollow fibers: The way toward efficient generation of short-wavelength ultrashort light pulses with controlled waveform and phase

New approaches to the generation of high-power ultrashort pulses of short-w avelength radiation are outlined. A synthesis of the output signal by addin g together the signals generated through high-order nonlinear-optical inter actions in several channels of a polybore gas-filled hollow fiber opens the way of increasing the energy of short-wavelength radiation, simultaneously allowing the output pulse to be chirped and tailored in a controllable way by using programmable liquid-crystal spatial light modulators controlling the pump beam. Hollow-core fibers with a periodic structure of cladding als o allow optical losses of waveguide modes to be considerably reduced, thus providing an opportunity to enhance nonlinear-optical interactions of high- power ultrashort laser pulses in a waveguide regime.