Supercontinuum

About: Supercontinuum is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7071 publications have been published within this topic receiving 127671 citations.

Noise amplification during supercontinuum generation in microstructure fiber.

Abstract: Supercontinua generated by femtosecond pulses launched in microstructure fiber can exhibit significant low-frequency (<1-MHz) amplitude noise on the output pulse train. We show that this low-frequency noise is an amplified version of the amplitude noise that is already present on the input laser pulse train. Through both experimental measurements and numerical simulations, we quantify the noise amplification factor and its dependence on the supercontinuum wavelength and on the energy and duration of the input pulse. Interestingly, the dependence differs significantly from that of the broadband white-noise component, which arises from amplification of the input laser shot noise.

Blue light and infrared continuum generation by soliton fission in a microstructured fiber

Abstract: The nonlinear propagation of ultrashort pulses in a microstructured fiber is experimentally investigated. By working around 800 nm, in the anomalous dispersion region, clear evidence of pulse break-up and soliton propagation is obtained. This is consistent with the recently suggested mechanism of spectral broadening based upon the fission of higher order solitons into red-shifted fundamental solitons and blue-shifted dispersion waves. When 190-fs pulses at high input intensities are used, the output spectrum is made of a broad infrared supercontinuum coexisting with a sharp and very intense blue peak that takes up to 24% of the input power. We tentatively propose an explanation of this effect by invoking pulse-trapping phenomena controlled by the group-velocity matching of infrared and visible pulses.

Continuous-wave pumping in the anomalous- and normal-dispersion regimes of nonlinear fibers for supercontinuum generation

Abstract: Supercontinuum (SC) growth in highly nonlinear fibers is compared for cw pumping in the anomalous- and normal-dispersion regimes. For anomalous-dispersion pumping, the combined effects of modulation instability (MI) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) contribute to spectral broadening. Furthermore, breakup of the cw light into ultrashort pulses by MI leads to the formation of a Raman pulse that evolves into a soliton, as evidenced by the observation of soliton self-frequency shift. Blueshifted, nonsolitonic radiation associated with the fission of higher-order solitons is also present in the SC spectra. For normal-dispersion pumping, SRS seeds the SC growth by generating several cascaded Stokes orders. When the Stokes orders are shifted into the anomalous-dispersion regime at higher launch powers, MI again causes soliton formation. Broadband continua are generated when the laser is positioned as far away as 191 nm from the zero-dispersion wavelength in normal dispersion.

The role of the second zero-dispersion wavelength in generation of supercontinua and bright-bright soliton-pairs across the zero-dispersion wavelength

Abstract: Supercontinuum generation with femtosecond pulses in photonic crystal fibers with two zero-dispersion wavelengths (ZDWs) is investigated numerically. The role of the higher ZDW is examined for 5 fiber designs with a nearly constant lower ZDW. It is found that the resulting spectrum is mainly determined by self-phase modulation in the first few mm of fiber, followed by soliton self-frequency shift and amplification of dispersive waves. It is demonstrated how femtosecond soliton pulses can be generated with any desired center wavelength in the 1020–1200 nm range by adjusting the fiber length. Further, the generation of a bright-bright soliton-pair from an initial single red-shifted soliton is found. The soliton-pair has one color in the anomalous dispersion region and the other color in the normal dispersion region, which has not previously been described for bright-bright soliton-pairs.