Pulsed and continuous-wave supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fibers

Supercontinuum generation in a highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fiber at 1550 nm is discussed. Spectrum generation under both pulsed and continuous-wave conditions is considered. With a few meters of highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fiber and a femtosecond erbium fiber laser, an octave-spanning supercontinuum is demonstrated. Kilometer lengths of nonlinear fiber pumped by a continuous-wave Raman fiber laser are shown to generate a continuum with a bandwidth greater than 247 nm. A nonlinear Schrödinger-equation model is used to investigate the effect of varying the dispersion on the pulsed continuum and noise effects in the continuous-wave continuum. PACS 42.81.Dp; 42.65.Wi; 42.55.Wd     

Experimental investigation of supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber pumped by spectrum-sliced amplified spontaneous emission

Spectral broadening of spectrum-sliced amplified spontaneous emission (SS-ASE) in highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fiber in different dispersion regimes is investigated experimentally. We find that, the spectral noise of the amplified SS-ASE pump from Er³⁺-doped fiber amplifier seeds the spectral broadening via four-wave mixing or modulation instability. Stimulated Raman scattering, red-shifted Raman solitons, and blue-shifted dispersion waves all enhance the broadening of the spectrum. The effect of the polarization state of pump on supercontinuum generation is also investigated, and it is found that, linear polarization is more efficient than random polarization for pumping supercontinuum. Supercontinuum with −10 dB bandwidth of 200 nm is generated by launching linearly polarized pump with 33.5 dB m power into anomalous dispersion regime near to zero dispersion wavelength of fiber.     

Temperature effects on supercontinuum generation using a continuous-wave Raman fiber laser

We describe the effect of temperature variations on supercontinuum (SC) generation in optical fibers using a continuous-wave (CW) Raman fiber laser as a pump. We achieve supercontinuum generation by pumping only ∼2 W of power into a 7 km-long nonzero dispersion-shifted fiber (NZDSF) in the region of small anomalous dispersion. In these conditions, the supercontinuum builds up basically on modulational instability and Raman. At room temperature, the supercontinuum covers effectively the S, C and L transmission bands defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Temperature tuning of the fiber environment provides a means of tuning the fiber dispersion, and thus a means of changing the width and shape of the supercontinuum spectrum. We demonstrate a 27% increase in the 10-dB SC width. We believe that the application of this new tuning mechanism to other experimental configurations using pulsed sources might be used to produce extremely broad supercontinuums.     

High-power supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fibers by use of a continuous-wave Raman fiber laser

High-power supercontinua are demonstrated in highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fibers with a continuous-wave Raman fiber laser. Supercontinuum growth is experimentally studied under different combinations of fiber length and launch power to show output powers as high as 3.2 W and bandwidths greater than 544 nm. Modulation instability (MI) is observed to seed spectral broadening at low launch powers, and the interplay between MI and stimulated Raman scattering plays an important role in the growth of the continuum at high launch powers. The effect on continuum generation of parametric four-wave mixing coupled with the higher-order dispersion properties of the fiber is investigated.     

Experimental investigation of continuous-wave supercontinuum ring laser composed of clad-pumped Er/Yb codoped fiber and highly-nonlinear optical fiber

We experimentally demonstrate a practical benefit of our proposed continuous-wave (CW) supercontinuum (SC) generating ring laser scheme in terms of low-cost device implementation and then investigate its output intensity noise property, as a further study to our previous paper of Ref. [J.H. Lee, Y. Takushima, K. Kikuchi, Opt. Lett. 30 (2005) 2599]. First, we implement a practical and low-cost CW SC laser using a double clad Er/Yb codoped fiber and a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber (HNL-DSF). Unlike the scheme in Ref. [J.H. Lee, Y. Takushima, K. Kikuchi, Opt. Lett. 30 (2005) 2599] the gain medium of an Er/Yb fiber is clad-pumped by low quality multimode pump LDs to underline the fact that our proposed scheme does not require any high power single-mode laser pump. A SC of a bandwidth larger than 470 nm is readily achieved. Next, we measure relative-intensity-noise (RIN) of the generated SC and compare it with that of a pumped Er/Yb fiber ASE. The SC laser is found to have a much higher RIN than the ASE due to the nonlinear amplification of quantum fluctuations both in the seed light oscillation and in the Raman scattering process.     

飞秒激光脉冲在高非线性光子晶体光纤中产生超连续谱的实验研究

使用钛宝石激光器抽运一根长1m的高非线性光子晶体光纤,获得的超连续谱波长覆盖范围为420—1700nm,输出功率为170mW,转换效率在20%以上;对实验结果给出了详细的分析,并与理论模拟结果相比较,认为超连续谱产生的主要原因是高阶孤子的分裂和四波混频效应.同时研究了不同抽运功率和不同抽运波长下超连续谱产生的情况,发现对同一根光纤,抽运功率由小到大变化时,可将输出的光谱分为初始展宽,剧烈展宽和饱和展宽三个阶段,当输出的光谱处于初始展宽和饱和展宽阶段时,都会存在一定的抽运残留,当输出的光谱处于剧烈展宽时,转 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 超连续谱 高阶孤子 反常色散区     

飞秒激光脉冲在高非线性光子晶体光纤中产生超连续谱的实验研究

使用钛宝石激光器抽运一根长1m的高非线性光子晶体光纤，获得的超连续谱波长覆盖范围为420—1700nm，输出功率为170mW，转换效率在20%以上；对实验结果给出了详细的分析，并与理论模拟结果相比较，认为超连续谱产生的主要原因是高阶孤子的分裂和四波混频效应.同时研究了不同抽运功率和不同抽运波长下超连续谱产生的情况，发现对同一根光纤，抽运功率由小到大变化时，可将输出的光谱分为初始展宽，剧烈展宽和饱和展宽三个阶段，当输出的光谱处于初始展宽和饱和展宽阶段时，都会存在一定的抽运残留，当输出的光谱处于剧烈展宽时，转     

Simultaneous fs pulse spectral broadening and third harmonic generation in highly nonlinear fibre: experiments and simulations

Experiments and numerical simulations are used to study non-phasematched single-mode third harmonic generation occurring simultaneously with fs pulse spectral broadening in highly nonlinear fibre. Pump pulses around 100 fs at 1560 nm injected into sub-5 cm lengths of commercially-available highly nonlinear fibre are observed to undergo spectral broadening spanning over 700 nm at the -30 dB level, and to simultaneously generate third harmonic radiation around 520 nm. Simulations based on a generalized nonlinear envelope equation are shown to well reproduce the spectral structure of the broadened pump pulses and the generated third harmonic signal. PACS 42.65.-k; 42.81.Dp     

光子晶体光纤超连续谱产生的实验研究

报道了利用掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光器产生重复频率为80MHz,脉宽为10fs的超短激光脉冲在10cm长光子晶体光纤产生超连续谱的实验,获得展宽范围为450nm到1100nm的连续谱。实验中观察到孤子自频移和高阶孤子分裂现象,非孤子辐射与随后光谱向短波方向的拓展有密切关系。     

Physical factors limiting the spectral extent and band gap dependence of supercontinuum generation

Based on simulations of femtosecond pulse propagation in water we elucidate the physical factors that limit the attainable spectral extent of supercontinuum generation in bulk media. In contrast to the standard scenario, where arrest of self-focusing collapse by multiphoton absorption and plasma defocusing are viewed as imposing a limit to supercontinuum broadening, we show that linear chromatic dispersion also plays a major role. This insight provides an intuitive explanation of the observed band gap dependence of the attainable supercontinuum generation in condensed media.     

Effect of pulse width on near-infrared supercontinuum generation in nonlinear fiber amplifier

The effect of pulse width on near-infrared supercontinuum generation in nonlinear fiber amplifier is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The complex Ginzburg–Landau equation and adaptive split-step Fourier method are used to simulate the propagation of pulses with different pulse widths in the fiber amplifier, and the results show that a longer pulse is more profitable in near-infrared supercontinuum generation if the central wavelength of the input laser lies in the normal dispersion region of the gain fiber. A four-stage master oscillator power amplifier configuration is adopted and the output spectra under picosecond and nanosecond input pulses are compared with each other. The experimental results are in good accordance with the simulations which can provide some guidance for further optimization of the system.     

Numerical investigation of the nonlinear spectral broadening aiming at a few-cycle regime for 10 ps level Nd-doped lasers

We present a cascaded nonlinear spectral broadening scheme for Nd-doped lasers, featuring with long pulse duration and high average power. This scheme is based on two multi-pass cells (MPCs) and one multiple-plate supercontinuum generation (MPSG), and the numerical investigation is driven by a home-made Nd-doped fiber laser with 12 ps pulse duration, 50 kHz repetition rate and 100 W average power. The MPC-based first two stages allow us to broaden the pulse spectrum to 4 nm and 43 nm respectively, and subsequently, the MPSG-based third stage allows us to reach 235 nm spectral bandwidth. This broadened spectrum can support a Fourier-transfer-limited pulse duration of 9.8 fs, which is shorter than three optical cycles. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to demonstrate the possibility of few-cycle pulses generation based on the 10 ps level Nd-doped lasers. Such few-cycle and high average power laser sources should be attractive and prospective, benefiting from the characteristics of structure compact, low-cost and flexibility.     

Numerical investigation on broadband mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in chalcogenide suspended-core fibers

As_2S_3 and As_2Se_3 chalcogenide 3-bridges suspended-core fibers(SCFs) are designed with shifted zero-dispersion wavelengths(ZDWs) at around 1.5 μm, 2 μm, and 2.8 μm, respectively. A generalized nonlinear Schr ¨odinger equation is used to numerically compare supercontinuum(SC) generation in these SCFs pumped at an anomalous dispersion region nearby their ZDWs. Evolutions of the long-wavelength edge(LWE), the power proportion in the long-wavelength region(PPL), and spectral flatness(SF) are calculated and analyzed. Meanwhile, the optimal pump parameters and fiber length are given with LWE, PPL, and SF taken into account. For As_2S_3 SCFs, SC from a 14 mm-long fiber with a ZDW of 2825 nm pumped at 2870 nm can achieve the longest LWE of ～ 13 μm and PPL up to ～72%. For As_2Se_3 SCFs, the LWE of 15.5 μm and the highest PPL of ～ 87% can be achieved in a 10 mm-long fiber with ZDW of 1982 nm pumped at 2000 nm. Although the As_2Se_3 SCFs can achieve much longer LWE than the As_2S_3 SCFs, the core diameter of As_2Se_3 SCFs will be much smaller to obtain a similar ZDW, leading to lower damage threshold and output power. Finally, the optimal parameters for generating SC spanning over different mid-IR windows are given.     

高非线性光子晶体光纤中飞秒脉冲的传输特性和超连续谱产生机制的实验研究及模拟分析

用实验和数值模拟两种方法研究了高非线性光子晶体光纤中飞秒激光脉冲的传输特性和超连续谱的产生机理，给出了抽运脉冲在三种不同中心波长情况下输出光谱展宽并形成超连续谱的实际测量及理论模拟结果.研究表明：在零色散波长抽运时，光谱展宽以自相位调制为主，同时三阶色散的影响明显，传输脉冲在时域内出现振荡次峰.而在反常色散区抽运时，光谱展宽的初期以自相位调制为主，随后根据抽运功率的不同孤子自频移、高阶光孤子的裂变和四波混频效应会逐渐增强，进而成为光谱展宽的主要原因.与此相应，在时域中能明显看到孤子的形成和红移，飞秒传输脉 关键词： 光子晶体光纤 高非线性光子晶体光纤 飞秒脉冲激光 超连续谱     

Modulation control and spectral shaping of optical fiber supercontinuum generation in the picosecond regime

Numerical simulations are used to study how fiber supercontinuum generation seeded by picosecond pulses can be actively controlled through the use of input pulse modulation. By carrying out multiple simulations in the presence of noise, we show how tailored supercontinuum spectra with increased bandwidth and improved stability can be generated using an input envelope modulation of appropriate frequency and depth. The results are discussed in terms of the nonlinear propagation dynamics and pump depletion.     

Spectral broadening of continuous-wave monochromatic pump radiation caused by stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fiber

We experimentally show that, when stimulated Brillouin scattering is generated in optical fiber by use of monochromatic cw pump radiation, the transmitted pump radiation exhibits spectral broadening that is much narrower than the classical homogeneous gain-narrowed Brillouin bandwidth. The bandwidth is practically independent of the pump strength, fiber characteristics, and the waveguide-induced inhomogeneously broadened bandwidth of the Stokes emission. We show that these properties arise from strong parametric coupling of the Stokes and pump signals in the pump-depletion region.     

Initial dynamics of supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber

We present a theoretical and experimental analysis of supercontinuum generation in very short lengths of high-nonlinearity photonic crystal fibers. The Raman response function for Schott SF6 glass is presented for what is believed to be the first time and used for numerical modeling of pulse propagation. Simulation and experiments are in excellent agreement and demonstrate the rapid transition to regimes of spectral complexity due to higher-order nonlinear effects.     

Optimization of highly nonlinear dispersion-flattened photonic crystal fiber for supercontinuum generation

A simple type of photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for supercontinuum generation is proposed for the first time. The proposed PCF is composed of a solid silica core and a cladding with square lattice uniform elliptical air holes, which offers not only a large nonlinear coefficient but also a high birefringence and low leakage losses. The PCF with nonlinear coefficient as large as 46 W 1 · km-1 at the wavelength of 1.55 μm and a total dispersion as low as ±2.5 ps · nm-1 · km-1 over an ultra-broad waveband range of the S-C-L band (wavelength from 1.46 μm to 1.625 μm) is optimized by adjusting its structure parameter, such as the lattice constant Λ , the air-filling fraction f , and the air-hole ellipticity η. The novel PCF with ultra-flattened dispersion, highly nonlinear coefficient, and nearly zero negative dispersion slope will offer a possibility of efficient super-continuum generation in telecommunication windows using a few ps pulses.     

Signal-to-noise ratio improvement of a supercontinuum continuous-wave optical source using a dispersion-imbalanced nonlinear optical loop mirror

A multiwavelength continuous-wave (cw) optical source is based on supercontinuum (sc) produced in a highly nonlinear fiber. Noise properties of this optical source are studied through numerical simulations based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The numerical simulations show that the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) generation in an erbium-doped fiber amplifier and the ASE amplification during the sc generation result in a serious degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). A novel scheme for improvement of the SNR of the multiwavelength cw optical source based on sc by using a dispersion-imbalanced nonlinear optical loop mirror is presented and the numerical simulation results are given. As a result, the average level of the SNR improvement is 11 dB and the eye-opening penalty is reduced by 0.91 dB due to the SNR improvement. In addition, the scheme can also be applied for improvement of the SNR of a pulse-type multiwavelength light source. PACS 42.50.Lc; 42.65.Re; 42.79.Sz; 02.60.Cb     

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

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.