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arXiv · 2510.23793

Addressing modulational instability in anti-resonant hollow-core fibers for pulse compression

Michael Hemsworth·TJ Hammond·Arthur K. Mills·David J. Jones
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Abstract

When pulses propagate in gas-filled anti-resonant hollow-core fibers (AR-HCFs) modulational instability (MI) can lead to pulse break-up and loss of coherence. In pulse broadening and compression schemes, MI is a parasitic effect that induces significant shot-to-shot fluctuations of the peak power of compressed pulses and increases rapidly over a narrow range of input pulse energies. In this work we use experimental studies and supporting numerical simulations to compare two AR-HCFs that are chosen to enhance or suppress MI. We demonstrate that judicious selection of the wall thickness of the anti-resonant elements (AREs) can drastically reduce the MI gain, thereby increasing the limit of pulse energy scaling of stable ultrafast pulse compression.

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Michael Hemsworth, TJ Hammond, Arthur K. Mills, David J. Jones. 2025-10-27. Addressing modulational instability in anti-resonant hollow-core fibers for pulse compression. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23793

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