Supercontinuum generation in a femtosecond laser-pumped microstructured photonic crystal fiber

Abstract

A stable system capable of generating a supercontinuum (SC) that spans the visible spectral region to near infrared is presented. This system utilizes a microstructured photonic crystal fiber with 2.3 µm core diameter and a wavelength-tunable mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser operating at 82 MHz with ~52 fs pulse duration. The spectral evolution of the generated broadband continuum was investigated for different pump wavelength and excitation power. Strong dependence of the SC bandwidth on the excitation power and selected pump wavelength was demonstrated where the maximum measurable bandwidth is 380 nm and 376 nm corresponding to the excitation pump at 788 nm and 804 nm, respectively.