Generation of a mid-infrared broadband polarized supercontinuum in As2Se3 photonic crystal fibers

Abstract

A simplified structure of birefringent chalcogenide As2Se3 photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is designed. Properties of birefringence, polarization extinction ratio, chromatic dispersion, nonlinear coefficient, and transmission are studied by using the multipole method, the finite-difference beam propagation method, and the adaptive split-step Fourier method. Considering that the zero dispersion wavelength of our proposed fiber is about 4 μm, we have analysed the mechanism of spectral broadening in PCFs with different pitches in detail, with femtosecond pulses at a wavelength of 4 μm as the pump pulses. Especially, mid-infrared broadband polarized supercontinuums are obtained in a 3-cm PCF with an optimal pitch of 2 μm. Their spectral width at −20 dB reaches up to 12 μm. In the birefringent PCF, we find that the supercontinuum generation changes with the pump alignment angle. Research results show that no coupling between eigenpolarization modes are observed at the maximum average power (i.e., 37 mW), which indicates that the polarization state is well maintained.