Photonic Crystal Fiber Infiltrated with Carbon Tetrachloride for Supercontinuum Generation

Abstract

Supercontinuum generation in a hollow core photonic crystal fiber infiltrated with carbon tetrachloride was verified numerically and experimentally with femtosecond laser. Carbon tetrachloride (CCU) infiltrated core of photonic crystal fiber (PCF), as well as other liquid core PCFs, have a large potential for supercontinuum (SC) generation, because they can combinate the unique properties of PCFs, i.e. modify dispersion characteristics by the individually changing of photonic cladding parameters of the PCF, optimize effective mode area and control mode properties, with high nonlinearity of liquid as a core medium. Moreover, using liquid core PCFs for SC generation can reduce requirements on high peak power and complexity of pump laser systems [1]. Carbon tetrachloride is one of the most interesting liquid in this area because it has very high nonlinear refractive index n2 = 1.53∗10−19 (m2/W) @ λ=1.064 μm [2], it is highly transparent from visible range to mid-infrared (MIR) [3], and its linear refractive index is similar to silica — therefore development of single mode fibers compatible with standard silica fibers is feasible. Therefore, carbon tetrachloride core PCFs gives a large opportunities to obtain the broadband SC generation in infrared.