Stable high-spectral-flatness mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in Tm-doped fiber amplifier

Abstract

We demonstrate a stable high-spectral-flatness mid-infrared (mid-IR) supercontinuum (SC) generation in a thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) with an average output power of 2.32W in a spectral band of ∼(1875–2700nm). A 1550nm distributed feedback (DFB) pulsed laser diode (LD) with repetition rate of 600kHz and pulse width of 900ps was used as the seed source. The measured long term stability of SC output power is less than 1.1%rms (root mean square) at the average output power of 2.32W. The measured slope efficiency from the 793nm pump power of the TDFA to the total SC output power is ∼14%. The output SC has a 6dB spectral flatness in the wavelength ranging from 1955 to 2505nm (550nm span) at the average output power of 2.32W.