Supercontinuum Generation in Microstructured Silica Optical Fibers: The Formation of Artificial White Light

Abstract

The inherent feature of nonlinear optics is the modification of the optical properties of the medium due to the interaction of the propagating high intensity light with the medium ultimately leading to the generation of new frequencies. An ultra-short optical pulse experiences spectral broadening when it is passed through a nonlinear medium such as high purity silica fiber and eventually generates artificial white light with unique spectral properties, controlled time duration and high spectral brightness. Owing to its wide and continuous spectra, such phenomenon is generally called supercontinuum (SC) generation. A variety of nonlinear processes governed by the associated pulse duration are involved in such spectral broadening. For femtosecond pump pulses, soliton dynamics plays a pivotal role whereas self-phase modulation (SPM), four wave mixing (FWM) etc are important for wider pump pulses. The generation of white light is an interesting physical phenomenon and it opens up new possibilities in the field of optical communication, optical metrology, nonlinear spectroscopy, microscopy and laser biomedicine. In the present review particular attention is paid to the description of the formation of white light in different operational conditions in highly nonlinear waveguides like photonic crystal fiber (PCF).