Engineering the high-frequency components of coherent supercontinuum generation in hybrid optical fibers with yttrium aluminum garnet core

Abstract

Coherent supercontinuum (SC) generation in optical fibers has spurred extensive research interest and found many applications. Here, we report a hybrid optical crystal fiber with an yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) core. The optimized fiber features broad and flat near-zero normal dispersion and three wavelengths where the dispersion slope is zero. Through numerical modeling, we in detail investigate the influence of the pump wavelengths near the three wavelengths on the spectral broadening. The spectral broadening shows asymmetric towards the high-frequency region. The longer the pump wavelength, the more is the short wavelength components of the generated SC. Thus, the high-frequency components of the SC spectra can be engineered in the fiber. Interestingly, the occurrence of optical wave breaking (OWB) in the low-frequency region is prior to that in the high-frequency region when the pump wavelength is at 1660 nm. The broadest spectrum could be obtained when the pump wavelength is near the middle wavelength where the dispersion slope is zero. The result provides a new strategy for fiber design and broadband SC generation, which is different from the viewpoint that the broadest spectrum can be obtained when the pump wavelength near the local maximum dispersion. Combined with high nonlinearity and flat dispersion, the hybrid fiber allows octave-spanning SC generation with the pump power low to 1 kW at 1100 nm. This provides the potentials for high-power, broadband, and coherent SC generation at 1064 nm where the dispersion slope is near zero.