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Abstract
This thesis develops a stretched hollow-core fiber system capable of spectrally broadening 130 fs pulses generated from a commercial Ti:Sa Coherent laser system for subsequent prism-based post-compression, achieving sub-30 fs pulses. The effects of various fiber core diameters on spectral broadening were examined. Nitrogen and argon gases were independently tested as nonlinear media within the hollow-core fiber, with argon demonstrating superior broadening characteristics and being selected as the optimal medium. Spectral broadening of ultraviolet pulses at 400nm and 267nm wavelengths, resulted in bandwidths corresponding to sub-20 fs pulses in the transform-limited case. At 267nm, the influence of input pulse energy, argon pressure, and the long-term stability of the hollow-core fiber setup were systematically studied. A double-pass ultraviolet fused silica prism pair compressor was experimentally optimized to generate sub-30fs pulses, which were characterized using transient grating frequency-resolved optical gating (TG-FROG).