Reaching white-light radiation source of ultrafast laser pulses with tunable peak power using nonlinear self-phase modulation in neon gas

•A source of ultrafast white-light radiation has been developed.•Observation of transform-limited pulses of 5.77 fs by compressing 32 fs pulses.•Attainment of tunable peak power values varied from 57 GW up to 104 GW.

A source of white-light radiation that generates few-cycle pulses with controlled peak power values has been developed. These ultrafast pulses have been observed by spectral broadening of 32 fs pulses through nonlinear self-phase modulation in a neon-filled hollow-fiber then compressed with a pair of chirped mirrors for dispersion compensation. The observed pulses reached transform-limited duration of 5.77 fs and their peak power values varied from 57 GW up to 104 GW at repetition rate of 1 kHz. Moreover, the applied method is used for a direct tuning of the peak power of the output pulses through varying the chirping of the input pulses at different neon pressures. The observed results may give an opportunity to control the ultrafast interaction dynamics on the femtosecond time scale and facilitate the regeneration of attosecond pulses.