Phase locked side band Raman generation and synthesis of ultrafast optical fields

Summary form only given. In recent years we could demonstrate new interesting nonlinear effects of propagation of a short intense fs-pulse through a hollow waveguide (HW) filled with a Raman-active gas and probing it with a second delayed fs-pulse. The idea of using waveguides for this investigation was borrowed from the famous work on pulse compression using self phase modulation in atomic gases. The main advantage of HW for fs-nonlinear interaction experiments is the enlargement of the interaction length of the pulse with the low density gaseous medium and a spatially uniform nonlinear interaction with excellent mode properties of the transmitted beam. Our first pump-probe experiments with Raman gases showed a self-conversion of the pulse-frequency and an impulsive excitation of the Raman medium (SF/sub 6/) with intense fs-laser pulses from a 30 fs Ti:sapphire laser.