Coherent supercontinuum bandwidth limitations under femtosecond pumping at 2 µm in all-solid soft glass photonic crystal fibers

Abstract

Two all-solid glass photonic crystal fibers with all-normal dispersion profiles are evaluated for coherent supercontinuum generation under pumping in the 2.0 μm range. In-house boron-silicate and commercial lead-silicate glasses were used to fabricate fibers optimized for either flat dispersion, albeit with lower nonlinearity, or with larger dispersion profile curvature but with much higher nonlinearity. Recorded spectra at the redshifted edge reached 2500-2800 nm depending on fiber type. Possible factors behind these differences are discussed with numerical simulations. The fiber enabling the broadest spectrum is suggested as an efficient first stage of an all-normal dispersion cascade for coherent supercontinuum generation exceeding 3000 nm.