Phase-matched waveguide four-wave mixing scaled to higher peak powers with large-core-area hollow photonic-crystal fibers.

Hollow photonic-crystal fibers with large core diameters are shown to allow waveguide nonlinear-optical interactions to be scaled to higher pulse peak powers. Phase-matched four-wave mixing is predicted theoretically and demonstrated experimentally for millijoule nanosecond pulses propagating in a hollow photonic-crystal fiber with a core diameter of about 50 microm , suggesting the way to substantially enhance the efficiency of nonlinear-optical spectral transformations and wave mixing of high-power laser pulses in the gas phase.