Tunable mid-infrared emission from acetylene-filled hollow-core fiber

We report here a step tunable mid-infrared laser emission from acetylene-filled hollow-core fiber. Two kinds of anti-resonant hollow-core fibers are filled with mbar level of acetylene gas, and pumped with a modulated, amplified, narrow linewidth, fine tunable, 1.5 μm diode laser, then 3 μm laser emissions are generated by the intrinsic absorption of acetylene molecules. The laser wavelength is step-tunable in the range of 3.1~3.2 μm when the pump laser is precisely tuned to different absorption lines of P-branch of acetylene. By properly designing the fiber's transmission bands, and carefully selecting active gases and pump lasers, this paper provides a novel method for efficient, compact and tunable mid-infrared fiber lasers over a broad spectrum range.