Abstract
Supercontinuum (SC) generation in a standard telecom fiber using 1 ns pulses of a 1,550-nm DFB laser amplified in a cascade of erbium and erbium/ytterbium fiber amplifiers is reported. The SC source operated at 200 kHz repetition rate and delivered up to 2 W of average output power in the band of 1,300–2,500 nm with a diffraction limited beam. For the wavelengths over 1,650 nm, the output power of 1.1 W was recorded. The spectrum was very flat with the flatness of <5 dB in the wavelength interval of 1.6–2.18 μm. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first report on W-level SC generation obtained only in a standard single-mode fiber (SMF-28) with almost the entire spectrum in the eye-safe spectral region (λ > 1.4 μm) permitted by silicate glass transparency.
Highlights
A considerable interest in SC laser sources has been observed over the past two decades
Spectral broadening in silica fibers is limited by strong material absorption in the mid-infrared region, they can be successfully used for SC generation in the wavelength range from the visible to *2.6 lm wavelength [11]—the band that is interesting for LIDAR systems [12, 13], optical coherence tomography [14] or chemical sensing and microscopy [15]
We report on a compact, high brightness, ready-to-use SC source built with the use of a standard single-mode fibers (SMF) (Corning, SMF-28) and a 1.5 lm telecomgrade MOPA source seeded by a directly modulated distributed feedback (DFB) laser providing 1 ns pulses
Summary
A considerable interest in SC laser sources has been observed over the past two decades. Since mode-locked lasers are very expensive, complicated in construction, inflexible for output average power scaling up and require constant, periodic maintenance so as to ensure an optimal operation, a very interesting solution is to replace them with gain-switched semiconductor distributed feedback (DFB) lasers (generating ns or ps duration pulses) followed by a compact, commercially available (or easy to develop) cascade of erbium or erbium and erbium/ ytterbium amplifiers. In literature this approach is called Master Oscillator Fiber Power Amplifier configuration [16]. The maximum achieved average power was 2 W, measured for all spectral band and 1.1 W for wavelengths beyond 1.65 lm
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
