Simple open-cavity pulsed Brillouin fiber laser with broadband supercontinuum generation

Abstract

A simple open-cavity laser is proposed for supercontinuum generation. Broadband supercontinuum covering the wavelength from 630 to 1700 nm with low multimode LD pump power (~ 1.7 W) is demonstrated. Giant nanosecond pulse generation can be realized by pumping a piece of Yb-doped double cladding fiber combined with two pieces of long passive fibers. There are no reflectors or modulators included in this laser. It is confirmed that the process of the passive self-Q-switch is mainly based on the stimulated Brillouin scattering effect. The peak power of the giant nanosecond pulses is high enough to generate supercontinuum with over 1000 nm bandwidth even in standard single-mode fiber, which makes this supercontinuum laser source low-cost and compact. Replacing the standard single-mode fiber with a piece of high nonlinear photonic crystal fiber, broader and flatter supercontinuum can be obtained because of the high nonlinear coefficient and the blue-shift of the zero-dispersion wavelength.