Supercontinuum Generation Research Articles

Supercontinuum generation in C6H5NO2-core photonic crystal fibers with various air-hole size

In this paper, we demonstrated the ability of a hexagonal photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a hollow core infiltrated with nitrobenzene (C6H5NO2) to generate a broad SC spectrum at low peak powers. Due to the non-uniformity of the air hole diameters, our new design allows for simultaneous optimization of features, resulting in near-flat, near-zero dispersion, a small effective mode area, and low attenuation for efficient spectral broadening. We selected two optimal structures from the simulation results to analyze the nonlinear properties and supercontinuum generation. The first fiber, #HF1, with a lattice constant of 1.0[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m and a filling factor of 0.45, operates in all-normal dispersion and produces spectral SC ranging from 0.81[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m to 1.919[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m with a pump wavelength of 1.56[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m, a pulse duration of 90[Formula: see text]fs, and peak power of 0.133[Formula: see text]kW propagated in a 1 cm fiber length. The #HF2 fiber (lattice constant of 2.0[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m, filling factor of 0.3) has an extended SC spectrum from 0.792[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m to 3.994[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m, a pump wavelength of 1.55[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m, a pulse width of 110[Formula: see text]fs, a peak power of 0.273[Formula: see text]kW propagated in a 15[Formula: see text]cm fiber length. The proposed fiber may be a new-generation optical fiber suitable for low-peak power all-fiber optical systems to replace glass-core glass fiber.

Flat visible spectrum by a genetic algorithm optimized photonic crystal fiber in the GHz comb spacing.

Coherent and flat supercontinuum (SC) sources are demanded for applications of metrology, spectroscopy, and bio-imaging. However, the process of SC generation is usually very complicated. We demonstrated a convenient and efficient method based on a genetic algorithm (GA). According to an objective spectrum, this algorithm could reverse-design the geometry of a fiber or waveguide without knowing the specific non-linear processes involved. Using this method, we designed a dispersion-managed photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for SC generation at 1 GHz comb spacing. With an input pulse of ∼150 fs, 450 pJ at 1050 nm, a 3 dB fluctuation spectrum ranging from 510 nm to 850 nm is obtained, which is absolutely fit to the calibration of an astronomical spectrograph.

Stabilization of modulation instability by control field in semiconductor quantum wells

This article explores the modulation instability of a continuous or quasi-continuous weak probe pulse in a three-level asymmetric double quantum wells under an electromagnetically induced transparency regime, controlled by a strong laser beam. The dynamics of modulation instability reveals that the instability gain as well as its bandwidth is greatly influenced by control field Rabi frequency. The probe pulse is found to be almost stable against modulation instability for higher values of control field Rabi frequency. The results of this investigation may potentially apply for oscillation free generation of supercontinuum in quantum well nanostructures.

Higher-order rogue-wave fission in the presence of self-steepening and Raman self-frequency shift

Using the generalized nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, we investigate how the effect of self-steepening and Raman-induced self-frequency shift impact higher-order rogue-wave solutions. We observe that each effect breaks apart the higher-order rogue wave, reducing it to its constituent fundamental parts, in a similar manner to how a higher-order soliton undergoes fission. Applying a local inverse-scattering technique, we show that under the effect of self-frequency shift, the emergence of a rogue wave significantly influences the surrounding wave background, triggering solitons, breathers, and new rogue waves. We demonstrate that under the combined effect of third-order dispersion, self-steepening, and Raman-induced self-frequency shift, the disintegrated elements of higher-order rogue waves become fundamental solitons, creating an asymmetrical spectral profile that generates both red- and blue-shifted frequency components. We also show the intermediary processes of the fission steps prior to soliton transformation which can only be observed in the presence of weak perturbations. These observations reveal the mechanisms that create a large number of solitons in the process of modulation instability-induced supercontinuum generation from a continuous-wave background in optical fibers.

All-fiber 2–6 [formula omitted] coherent supercontinuum source based on chalcogenide fibers pumped by an amplified mid-IR soliton laser

We numerically and experimentally investigate an all-fiber configuration of coherent mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in the femtosecond pumping regime. In particular, we demonstrate the advantageous combination of various dispersion-engineered chalcogenide (Ge-Se-Te glass) fibers with a turn-key amplified femtosecond fiber laser delivering 175-fs soliton pulses around 3.4 μm and developed from the erbium-doped fluoride fiber technology. Our results show that compact and coherent octave-spanning fiber supercontinuum sources centered on the 2–5 μm infrared atmospheric window can be obtained with a maximum average power of 50 mW at 25 MHz repetition rate.

A Highly Birefringent Photonic Crystal Fiber with Three Rows of Circular Air Holes

An exceptionally high-performance, high-birefringent photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is meticulously designed. The core design features a unique arrangement in which the central row of circular air holes is substituted by three rows of smaller circular holes. Subsequently, the middle row is adjusted to achieve various rectangular mode field configurations. With the optimized structure parameters, the birefringence of the PCF can reach 3.57 × 10−2 at a wavelength of 1.55 μm. The confinement loss is as low as 8.4 × 10−6 dB/m. The nonlinear coefficient is up to 41 W−1·km−1. The dispersion is relatively flat within the range from 1.3 μm to 1.9 μm. These remarkable characteristics render the proposed PCF a strong candidate for applications in polarization preservation, dispersion compensation, wideband supercontinuum generation, and other related fields.

Enhancement of the spectral broadening efficiency for circular polarization states in the high absorption regime for Gaussian and doughnut-shaped beams in fused silica.

We experimentally investigate the spectral broadening in fused silica in the multiphoton absorption regime. Under standard conditions of laser irradiation, linear polarization of laser pulses is more advantageous for supercontinuum generation. However, with high non-linear absorption, we observe more efficient spectral broadening for circular polarizations for both Gaussian and doughnut-shaped beams. The multiphoton absorption in fused silica is studied by measuring the total transmission of laser pulses and by the intensity dependence of the self-trapped exciton luminescence observation. The strong polarization dependence of multiphoton transitions fundamentally affects the broadening of the spectrum in solids.

Broadband supercontinuum generation in a square lattice photonic crystal fiber with C6H6-core using low pump power

Broadband supercontinuum generation in a square lattice photonic crystal fiber with C6H6-core using low pump power

Ultra-high birefringence mid-infrared Ge20Sb15Se65 chalcogenide glass photonic crystal fiber with low confinement loss

This study introduces a Ge20Sb15Se65 chalcogenide-glass-based photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with high birefringence and nonlinearity and ultra-low confinement loss, in which two elliptical air holes are added in the core. The propagation properties of the proposed PCF are investigated in mid-infrared range (3.0–5.0 μm) using the finite element method (FEM). Simulation results indicate that optimizing structural parameters can increase the birefringence and nonlinear coefficient to a maximum of 3.16 × 10−1 and 5937 W−1km−1 (in y-polarization mode), respectively, a significantly low confinement loss reach 10−14 dB m−1 at 3.0 μm wavelength, there can obtain one zero dispersion wavelength in the study band, and the designed structure can be fabricated using available technology. The designed PCF will have promising application in mid-infrared fiber fields, optical communication, super-continuum generation, precision, and nonlinear optics.

Nonlinear autoregressive with external input neural network for predicting the nonlinear dynamics of supercontinuum generation in optical fibers

Full characterization of the propagation dynamics of ultra-short pulses in optical fibers is of fundamental importance in designing optical devices for several applications in the nonlinear optics field. Such applications range from basic descriptions of the light–matter dynamics to Bose–Einstein condensates, plasma physics, hydrodynamics, high-resolution imaging, and remote sensing, among many others. Nevertheless, ultra-short pulse propagation is a highly nonlinear process, so correctly describing all temporal and spectral features of these pulses is a big challenge, consuming extensive computational resources. Looking for simple solutions to this problem, we present in this paper, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a nonlinear autoregressive with external input neural network (NARXNET) capable of predicting the nonlinear dynamics of supercontinuum generation in optical fibers. The NARXNET structure allows low prediction error, fast training as short as 1.45 min, satisfactory generalization ability, and low computational resources for the training and testing stages.

Tunable Dispersion and Supercontinuum Generation in Disordered Glass-Air Anderson Localization Fiber

In this paper, we discuss chromatic dispersion properties of transverse Anderson localization optical fiber (TALOF) and their implications on broad band supercontinuum (SC) generation. Our dispersion study reveals a clear correlation between the Anderson localization length and the dispersion properties of highly localized TALOF modes. We demonstrate that the zero dispersion wavelength can be tuned over more than 300 nm within the same fiber by selected excitation of specific modes. We exploit this unique TALOF property, which we validated with rigorous finite-element modeling, to generate multi octave spanning SC ranging from 460–1750 nm, highlighting the great potential of disordered Anderson localization fibers for nonlinear applications.

Ultra-Flat Supercontinuum Generation in an All-Fiber Self-Q-Switched Er/Yb Laser

A supercontinuum source based on a self-Q-switched Er/Yb-codoped fiber laser has been experimentally demonstrated. At different pump powers, starting at a moderate value of 1.1 W, self-Q-switched pulses with a broad flat spectrum of ~ 560 nm width spanning over the range ~1600 – 2160 nm at −5 dB level (considering the Raman peak) are obtained. Such wide spectrum can be achieved directly at the output of the fiber laser resonator, making the structure compact and robust. With a maximum pump power of 4.9 W, the repetition rate, average output power, peak power and pulse energy are approximately 14.7 kHz, 465 mW, 66 kW and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$31~\mu \text{J}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , respectively. This compact SC laser configuration has the merits of simple cavity design, low cost and good robustness, which provide a SC source that can be easily applied to numerous areas, such as spectroscopy, optical communications, metrology and biomedical applications.

Raman based on-chip photonic quantizers for ADCs

In this work, a model for an on-chip all-photonic analog to digital converter is proposed. Here, the underlying quantization technique is based on slicing the supercontinuum generated inside the highly nonlinear nanocrystal embedded slotted photonic crystal waveguide at specifically chosen wavelengths. It is shown that although both the broadening and splitting of the spectrum can be used for four level quantization, only broadening can be used for designing eight (or more) level quantization. The highly nonlinear device system makes the eight level quantization scheme incremental within a footprint of 50×20µm2, which can convert 0–11 mW analog optical power to respective quantization levels. Although both Kerr and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) contribute to the generation of the supercontinuum, the giant SRS gain of the silicon nanocrystal essentially outweighs that of the Kerr, with, consequently, unprecedented miniaturization in both operating power and footprint.

Mid‐IR Supercontinuum Noise Reduction Using a Short Piece of Normal Dispersion Fiber ‐ A General Mechanism

AbstractMid‐infrared (IR) supercontinuum (SC) lasers are important in applications such as pollution detection, stand‐off detection, and non‐destructive testing. The performance in many applications is limited by the noise level of the supercontinuum laser. High noise typically results in low sensitivities or a need for long integration times. In this paper, a simple technique to reduce the noise of high noise soliton‐based SC sources is introduced by adding a short piece of normal dispersion fiber to force the spectrally distributed solitons to spectrally broaden through self‐phase modulation and thereby overlap to average out the noise. The noise reduction is demonstrated experimentally and numerically using a ZBLAN fiber based mid‐IR SC source and adding a short piece of highly nonlinear arsenic‐sulfide fiber. However, the method is generally applicable to any soliton‐based near‐IR or mid‐IR SC source. Its efficiency is underlined by experimentally comparing it to SC generation in fibers in which a second zero‐dispersion wavelength provides the spectral alignment noise reduction mechanism.

Spectrally flat mid-infrared supercontinuum pumped by a high power 2 µm noise-like pulse.

We demonstrate spectrally flat high-power mid-infrared supercontinuum (MIR SC) generation with record-breaking power of 33.1 W and power conversion efficiency of 75.06%. It is pumped by a 2 µm master oscillator power amplifier system consisting of a figure-8 mode-locked noise-like pulse seed laser and dual-stage Tm-doped fiber amplifiers with repetition rate of 4.08 MHz. Through cascading a piece of ZBLAN fiber with 13.5 µm large core diameter by direct-low-loss fusion splicing, SCs with spectral ranges of 1.9-3.68 µm, 1.9-3.84 µm, 1.9-4.02 µm and average powers of 33.1 W, 29.8 W, 25.9 W are generated. To the best of our knowledge, all of them have achieved the highest output power under the same condition of MIR spectrum range. This high-power all-fiber MIR SC laser system has relatively simple architecture, high efficiency and flat spectrum, demonstrating the advantages of 2 µm noise-like pulse pump in high-power MIR SC generation.

Broadband UV Supercontinuum Generation by Three-Color Ionizing Laser Pulses

We theoretically investigated the properties of the ultraviolet secondary radiation generated under the action of three-color ionizing pulses obtained from parametric light generators. We show that the combination components in the spectrum of electron currents generated under the action of such three-color pulses can form a strictly exponentially decreasing sequence. For moderately short pump pulse durations (30 fs at 800 nm main field) with the use of this effect, it is possible to generate a smooth broadband supercontinuum in the 800–100 nm range.

Modulational Instability and Spectral Broadening of Vortex Modes in Chiral Photonic Crystal Fibers

We report on intra- and inter-modal four-wave-mixing (FWM) in <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">N</i> -fold rotationally symmetric (C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">N</sub> ) single- and multi-core chiral photonic crystal fiber (PCF), created by spinning the preform during fiber drawing. The non-circular modal field is forced to rotate as it propagates along the fiber, resulting in circular birefringence and robust maintenance of circular polarization state. Multi-core chiral C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">N</sub> PCF supports vortex-carrying helical Bloch modes (HBMs) in which the degeneracy between clockwise and counter-clockwise vortices is lifted. This makes possible new kinds of intermodal polarization modulational instability (PMI). We develop PMI theory for vortex HBMs, and illustrate the results by a series of experiments in which two or more PMI sidebands with different vorticities and polarization states are selectively generated by adjusting the polarization state and topological charge of the pump light. In every case both the topological charge and the spin of the pump light are conserved. We also report generation of a broadband supercontinuum in a single circularly polarized vortex mode.

Dual Concentric-Ring-Core Fiber With Four Zero-Dispersion Wavelengths for Beyond Three-Octave OAM Supercontinuum Generation

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams, featuring with unique spatial field distributions, have been extensively investigated and applied into a wide range of fields. In most applications, OAM beams covering a certain frequency band are usually required, and supercontinuum (SC) generation is a feasible method to provide broadband OAM source. As a short pulse is incident into a specially designed optical fiber with flat dispersion over broad bandwidth, a broadband SC could be generated along propagation due to the nonlinear spectral broadening. In this work, we propose a dual concentric-ring-core fiber design to achieve near-zero and flat dispersion profile over 3007-nm wavelength range with four zero-dispersion wavelengths for the OAM mode. The precise position of the zero-dispersion wavelengths can be tailored by varying the structural variables and the germanium-doped concentration of the silica-based fiber. The performance of the spectral broadening in terms of flatness and bandwidth is investigated under different input pulse and propagation conditions. Simulation results depict that the OAM <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3,1</sub> mode supercontinuum spectrum can achieve beyond three-octave spanning from 445 to 3942 nm at −40 dB level by pumping a 50-fs 600-kW Gaussian pulse at the central wavelength of 1900 nm into a 2-mm designed fiber. By further optimizing the proposed fiber structure for the OAM <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1,1</sub> mode with <60 ps/(nm·km) dispersion variation over a 3210-nm bandwidth, the generated supercontinuum can cover nearly three octaves.

A New Design of Ultra-flat Dispersion Photonic Crystal Fiber using Benzene Infiltration

This paper presents new results on dispersion in photonic crystal fibers (PCF) based on a circular lattice, with benzene infiltration into the hollow-core. We achieved near-zero, ultra-flat dispersion through the appropriate adjustment of air hole diameters and pitch of cladding. The result gives a dispersion of ±0.484 ps/nm-1.km over a wavelength range of 450 nm. Besides, we also obtained very high nonlinear coefficients, up to several thousand W–1.km–1, and a very low attenuation, about 10–21 dB/m for optimal structures suitable for supercontinuum generation application.&#x0D;

Comparison of supercontinuum spectral widths in CCl4-core PCF with square and circular lattices in the claddings

In this study, we demonstrate the ability to generate a broad supercontinuum (SC) spectrum with a low peak power of square (S-PCF) and circular (C-PCF) lattice photonic crystal fibers with hollow-core infiltrated with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). The dispersion and nonlinear characteristics have been numerically analyzed in detail and compared to select the optimal structures for SC generation and evaluate the SC generation efficiency for each PCF. With four optimal proposed structures, the all-normal dispersion of square PCF (#SF1) is found to be flatter and smaller. This results in its SC bandwidth reaching 901 nm at 1.095 μm pumping wavelength which is broader than that of circular PCF (#CF1) (768 nm at 0.98 μm wavelength) despite the lower nonlinear coefficient and higher confinement loss. For the anomalous dispersion regime, #CF2 fiber provides a wider SC spectrum (1753.1 nm) with a peak power of 10 kW compared to #SF2 (1689.6 nm) with a peak power of 13.75 kW thanks to the higher nonlinear coefficient and smaller confinement loss. With the higher nonlinearity of CCl4, the proposed fibers can be a new generation of optical fibers, suitable for low peak power all-fiber optical systems replacing glass core fibers.