Deep-ultraviolet Cherenkov radiation in all-normal-dispersion waveguide enabled by spatial-temporal dynamics
Abstract
Nonlinear propagation of ultrashort pulses in multi-mode waveguides, featuring complex spatial-temporal dynamics, provides new degrees of freedom in the fields of nonlinear optics and ultrafast lasers. Here, we demonstrate a new scheme of ultraviolet Cherenkov (dispersive-wave) radiation in a gas-filled capillary with unprecedently-high pulse energy, enabled by spatial-temporal dynamics. We found that mJ-level, 40-fs pulses, launched into a large-core capillary filled with high-pressure noble gas, would experience self-phase-modulation and self-steepening effects in this normal-dispersion waveguide, leading to high-intensity shock wave generation and asymmetric spectral broadening. Spatial-temporal dynamics, stemming from strong nonlinear inter-mode coupling, causes spatial shrink and temporal deceleration of the pulse which dramatically alter the capillary dispersion landscape. As a result, a phase-matching point can be created in the ultraviolet, giving rise to the radiation of multi-mode dispersive waves with 100-{\mu}J-level pulse energies and few-fs pulse widths. Our findings inspire new insights into multi-mode nonlinear optics, and the demonstrated high-energy ultraviolet light source with broadband tunability and compact set-up configuration, may find a few applications in time-resolved spectroscopy, ultrafast electronics and femtosecond chemistry.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.01542,
title = {Deep-ultraviolet Cherenkov radiation in all-normal-dispersion waveguide enabled by spatial-temporal dynamics},
author = {Tiandao Chen and Zhiyuan Huang and Jinyu Pan and Donghan Liu and Ruochen Yin and Xinglin Zeng and Jinxin Zhan and Jiapeng Huang and Wenbin He and Xin Jiang and Hao Hong and Kaihui Liu and Yuxin Leng and Ruxin Li and Meng Pang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.01542},
year = {2026}
}