Spectrally flat supercontinuum generation in a holmium-doped ZBLAN fiber with record power ratio beyond 3 μm

Abstract

A spectrally flat mid-infrared supercontinuum (MIR-SC) spanning 2.8–3.9 μm with a maximum output power of 411 mW was generated in a holmium-doped ZBLAN fiber amplifier (HDZFA). A broadband fiber-based SC covering the 2.4–3.2 μm region was designed to seed the amplifier. Benefiting from the broadband seed laser, the obtained SC had a high spectral flatness of 3 dB over the range of 2.93–3.70 μm (770 nm). A spectral integral showed that the SC power beyond 3 μm was 372 mW, i.e., a power ratio of 90.6% of the total power. This paper, to the best of our knowledge, not only demonstrates the first spectrally flat MIR-SC directly generated in fluoride fiber amplifiers, but also reports the highest power ratio beyond 3 μm obtained in rare-earth-doped fluoride fiber until now.