Broadband supercontinuum generation with photonic crystal fibers made of soft glass

摘要

In this paper we report on the fabrication of a micro-structured fiber made of in-house synthesized silicate glass, with a nonlinear Kerr refractive index of 4.0 10~(-15) cm~2/W. The micro-structured fiber uses three rings of holes around a slightly elliptical core with dimensions 2.6 μm × 3.4 μm. This fiber has a birefringence of about 10~(-3) at 1.5 μm and zero dispersion wavelengths at 860 nm and 870 nm. Using this fiber we have demonstrated ultra broadband supercontinuum generation in the range 400 - 1600 nm for 19.5 cm fiber sample pumped with 100 fs pulses with central wavelength of 755 nm and energy of 2 nJ. Broadband generation of 200 nJ in the range 650-850 nm with pulse energy on the level of 0.5 nJ is also observed with the same structure.