High quality sub-two cycle pulses from compression of supercontinuum generated in all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber

An oscillator-driven, time-resolved optical pump/NIR supercontinuum probe spectrometer

We present a novel, to the best of knowledge, time-resolved, optical pump/NIR supercontinuum probe spectrometer suitable for oscillators. A NIR supercontinuum probe spectrum (850-1250 nm) is generated in a photonic crystal fiber, dispersed across a digital micromirror device (DMD), and then raster scanned into a single element detector at a 5 Hz rate. Dual modulation of pump and probe beams at disparate frequencies permits simultaneous measurement of both the bare reflectance R and its photoinduced change ΔR through lock-in detection, allowing for continuously self-normalized measurement of ΔR/R. Example data are presented on a germanium wafer sample that demonstrate for signals of order ΔR/R ∼ 10^-3, a 2.87 nm spectral resolution and ≲400 fs temporal resolution pre-recompression, and comparable sensitivity to standard time-resolved, amplifier-based pump-probe techniques.

Few-cycle all-fiber supercontinuum laser for ultrabroadband multimodal nonlinear microscopy

Temporally coherent supercontinuum sources constitute an attractive alternative to bulk crystal-based sources of few-cycle light pulses. We present a monolithic fiber-optic configuration for generating transform-limited temporally coherent supercontinuum pulses with central wavelength at 1.06 µm and duration as short as 13.0 fs (3.7 optical cycles). The supercontinuum is generated by the action of self-phase modulation and optical wave breaking when pumping an all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber with pulses of hundreds of fs duration produced by all-fiber chirped pulsed amplification. Avoidance of free-space propagation between stages confers unequalled robustness, efficiency and cost-effectiveness to this novel configuration. Collectively, the features of all-fiber few-cycle pulsed sources make them powerful tools for applications benefitting from the ultrabroadband spectra and ultrashort pulse durations. Here we exploit these features and the deep penetration of light in biological tissues at the spectral region of 1 µm, to demonstrate their successful performance in ultrabroadband multispectral and multimodal nonlinear microscopy.

Spectral filtering effect on the ultrafast mid-infrared Er3+-doped ZBLAN fiber laser

We investigate the spectral filtering effect on the mid-infrared ultrafast Er³⁺-doped ZBLAN fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization evolution (NPE). A broad wavelength tuning range from 2720 nm to 2800 nm is achieved using a diffraction grating as the narrowband filter. Furthermore, numerical simulations are also carried out so that, by inserting a highly nonlinear fiber combined with an appropriate spectral filter in the laser system, a 329 nm ultra-broadband spectrum with a Fourier transform limit pulse as short as 47 fs can be achieved. Our results are conducive to understanding the spectral filtering effect on the lasing performance of mid-infrared ultrafast fiber lasers.

Single-laser-based simultaneous four-wavelength excitation source for femtosecond two-photon fluorescence microscopy

Multicolor labeling of biological samples with large volume is required for omic-level of study such as the construction of nervous system connectome. Among the various imaging method, two photon microscope has multiple advantages over traditional single photon microscope for higher resolution and could image large 3D volumes of tissue samples with superior imaging depth. However, the growing number of fluorophores for labeling underlines the urgent need for an ultrafast laser source with the capability of providing simultaneous plural excitation wavelengths for multiple fluorophores. Here, we propose and demonstrate a single-laser-based four-wavelength excitation source for two-photon fluorescence microscopy. Using a sub-100 fs 1,070-nm Yb:fiber laser to pump an ultrashort nonlinear photonic crystal fiber in the low negative dispersion region, we introduced efficient self-phase modulation and acquired a blue-shifted spectrum dual-peaked at 812 and 960 nm with 28.5% wavelength conversion efficiency. By compressing the blue-shift near-IR spectrum to 33 fs to ensure the temporal overlap of the 812 and 960 nm peaks, the so-called sum frequency effect created the third virtual excitation wavelength effectively at 886 nm. Combined with the 1,070 nm laser source as the fourth excitation wavelength, the all-fiber-format four-wavelength excitation source enabled simultaneous four-color two-photon imaging in Brainbow AAV-labeled (TagBFP, mTFP, EYFP, and mCherry) brain samples. With an increased number of excitation wavelengths and improved excitation efficiency than typical commercial femtosecond lasers, our compact four-wavelength excitation approach can provide a versatile, efficient, and easily accessible solution for multiple-color two-photon fluorescence imaging in the field of neuroscience, biomolecular probing, and clinical applications with at least four spectrally-distinct fluorophores.

High-energy normal-dispersion fiber optical parametric chirped-pulse oscillator

We demonstrate a fiber optical parametric chirped-pulse oscillator (FOPCPO) pumped in the normal-dispersion regime by chirped pulses at 1.036 µm. Highly chirped idler pulses tunable from 1210 nm to 1270 nm with energies higher than 250 nJ are generated from our system, along with signal pulses tunable from 870 nm to 910 nm. Numerical simulations demonstrate that further energy scaling is possible and paves the way for the use of such FOPCPOs for applications requiring high-energy, compact, and low-noise sources, such as in biophotonics or spectroscopy.

Low noise all-fiber amplification of a coherent supercontinuum at 2 µm and its limits imposed by polarization noise

We report a low noise, broadband, ultrafast Thulium/Holmium co-doped all-fiber chirped pulse amplifier, seeded by an Erbium-fiber system spectrally broadened via coherent supercontinuum generation in an all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber. The amplifier supports a − 20 dB bandwidth of more than 300 nm and delivers high quality 66 fs pulses with more than 70 kW peak power directly from the output fiber. The total relative intensity noise (RIN) integrated from 10 Hz to 20 MHz is 0.07%, which to our knowledge is the lowest reported RIN for wideband ultrafast amplifiers operating at 2 µm to date. This is achieved by eliminating noise-sensitive anomalous dispersion nonlinear dynamics from the spectral broadening stage. In addition, we identify the origin of the remaining excess RIN as polarization modulational instability (PMI), and propose a route towards complete elimination of this excess noise. Hence, our work paves the way for a next generation of ultra-low noise frequency combs and ultrashort pulse sources in the 2 µm spectral region that rival or even outperform the excellent noise characteristics of Erbium-fiber technology.

Detection and elimination of pulse train instabilities in broadband fibre lasers using dispersion scan

We use self-calibrating dispersion scan to experimentally detect and quantify the presence of pulse train instabilities in ultrashort laser pulse trains. We numerically test our approach against two different types of pulse instability, namely second-order phase fluctuations and random phase instability, where the introduction of an adequate metric enables univocally quantifying the amount of instability. The approach is experimentally demonstrated with a supercontinuum fibre laser, where we observe and identify pulse train instabilities due to nonlinear propagation effects under anomalous dispersion conditions in the photonic crystal fibre used for spectral broadening. By replacing the latter with an all-normal dispersion fibre, we effectively correct the pulse train instability and increase the bandwidth of the generated coherent spectrum. This is further confirmed by temporal compression and measurement of the output pulses down to 15 fs using dispersion scan.

Octave-spanning coherent supercontinuum generation in an AlGaAs-on-insulator waveguide

We demonstrate supercontinuum generation over an octave spaning from 1055 to 2155 nm on the highly nonlinear aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs)-on-insulator platform. This is enabled by the generation of two dispersive waves in a 3-mm-long dispersion-engineered nano-waveguide. The waveguide is pumped at telecom wavelengths (1555 nm) with 3.6 pJ femtosecond pulses. We experimentally validate the coherence of the generated supercontinuum around the pump wavelength (1450-1750 nm), and our numerical simulation shows a high degree of coherence over the full spectrum.

Generation of 1.5 cycle pulses at 780 nm at oscillator repetition rates with stable carrier-envelope phase

We demonstrate a spectral broadening and compression setup for carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stable sub-10-fs Ti:sapphire oscillator pulses resulting in 3.9 fs pulses spectrally centered at 780 nm. Pulses from the oscillator with 2 nJ energy are launched into a 1 mm long all-normal dispersive solid-core photonic crystal fiber and spectrally broadened to more than one octave. Subsequent pulse compression is achieved with a phase-only 4f pulse shaper. Second harmonic frequency resolved optical gating with a ptychographic reconstruction algorithm is used to obtain the spectral phase, which is fed back as a phase mask to the shaper display for pulse compression. The compressed pulses are CEP stable with a long term standard deviation of 0.23 rad for the CEP noise and 0.32 rad for the integrated rms phase jitter. The high total throughput of 15% results in a remaining pulse energy of about 300 pJ at 80 MHz repetition rate. With these parameters and the ability to tailor the spectral phase, the system is well suited for waveform sensitive photoemission experiments with needle tips or nanostructures and can be easily adapted to other sub-10 fs ultra-broadband Ti:sapphire oscillators.

Ultra-low-noise supercontinuum generation with a flat near-zero normal dispersion fiber

A pure silica photonic crystal fiber with a group velocity dispersion (β₂) of 4  ps²/km at 1.55 μm and less than 7  ps²/km from 1.32 μm to the zero dispersion wavelength (ZDW) 1.80 μm was designed and fabricated. The dispersion of the fiber was measured experimentally and found to agree with the fiber design, which also provides low loss below 1.83 μm due to eight outer rings with increased hole diameters. The fiber was pumped with a 1.55 μm, 125 fs laser and, at the maximum in-coupled peak power (P₀) of 9 kW, a 1.34-1.82 μm low-noise spectrum with a relative intensity noise below 2.2% was measured. The numerical modeling agreed very well with the experiments and showed that P₀ could be increased to 26 kW before noise from solitons above the ZDW started to influence the spectrum by pushing high-noise dispersive waves through the spectrum.

Simple technique for the compression of nanojoule pulses from few-cycle laser oscillator to 1.7-cycle duration via nonlinear spectral broadening in diamond

We report on a simple approach for the compression of few-cycle laser pulses generated in an ultrafast laser oscillator to a duration corresponding to 1.7 cycles of near-infrared light (compression factor of 1.44) by nonlinear spectral broadening in diamond and subsequent dispersion compensation using chirped mirrors. After the spectral broadening, the pulse spectrum spans over almost an octave (580-1000 nm at the -10  dB level). The pulses are compressed by broadband-chirped mirrors and a wedge pair to a duration of 4.5 fs measured by spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER). The properties of the broadened spectrum and their modelling by numerical solution of a 1D nonlinear Schrödinger equation show that the main source of spectral broadening is self-phase modulation, whereas stimulated Raman scattering does not play a significant role.

Linearly chirped mid-infrared supercontinuum in all-normal-dispersion chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers

We demonstrate all-normal dispersion supercontinuum generation in chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers pumped at 2070-2080 nm with a femtosecond fiber laser. At 2.9 kW peak power, the generated supercontinuum has a 3 dB bandwidth of 27.6 THz and -20 dB bandwidth of 75.5 THz. We experimentally investigated the supercontinuum evolution inside our sample fiber at various peak powers and fiber lengths and study the impact of fiber water absorption on the generated supercontinuum spectrum. Multiple tests with fiber length- ranging from 0.34 to 10 cm-provide insight on pulse evolution along fiber length. Our simulations, which utilizes the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation model, match perfectly the experiments for all tested pump powers and fiber lengths, and confirm that the output pulse has a linear chirp, allowing linear pulse compression.

Highly coherent supercontinuum in the mid-infrared region with cascaded tellurite and chalcogenide fibers

We numerically investigate two-step supercontinuum (SC) generation using cascaded tellurite and chalcogenide fibers with all-normal group velocity dispersion pumped by a femtosecond laser at 2 μm. The optimized tellurite fiber is a hybrid microstructured optical fiber with a core surrounded by 12 rods. It has flat normal chromatic dispersion from 2 to 5 μm. The chalcogenide fiber is a double-core fiber with flat normal chromatic dispersion from 4 to 10 μm. The output SC spectrum from the best candidate fibers spans from 0.78 to 8.3 μm with coherence of unity all over the spectrum. Such high coherence pulse with broad spectrum will be valuable for many applications in tomography, ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy, etc. The proposed fiber structures are all-solid and are feasible for fabrication with the common rod-in-tube method. This implies that two-step SC is a potential way to obtain broad, highly coherent SC in the mid-infrared.

Generation of 70-fs pulses at 2.86 μm from a mid-infrared fiber laser

We propose and demonstrate a simple route to few-optical-cycle pulse generation from a mid-infrared fiber laser through nonlinear compression of pulses from a holmium-doped fiber oscillator using a short length of chalcogenide fiber and a grating pair. Pulses from the oscillator with 265-fs duration at 2.86 μm are spectrally broadened through self-phase modulation in step-index As₂S₃ fiber to 141-nm bandwidth and then re-compressed to 70 fs (7.3 optical cycles). These are the shortest pulses from a mid-infrared fiber system to date, and we note that our system is compact, robust, and uses only commercially available components. The scalability of this approach is also discussed, supported by numerical modeling.

Ultra-short pulse fiber optical parametric oscillator

This work explores the frequency conversion and generation of short pulses with an optical parametric oscillator based on micro-structured fibers. Depending on the operation regime, the optical cavity can either behave as a normal-dispersion cavity delivering linearly chirped pulses, which were externally compressed down to only 26 fs, or as a dispersion-managed oscillator, which directly delivered compressed pulses with a pulse duration of only 39 fs.

Hybrid soliton dynamics in liquid-core fibres

The discovery of optical solitons being understood as temporally and spectrally stationary optical states has enabled numerous innovations among which, most notably, supercontinuum light sources have become widely used in both fundamental and applied sciences. Here, we report on experimental evidence for dynamics of hybrid solitons-a new type of solitary wave, which emerges as a result of a strong non-instantaneous nonlinear response in CS2-filled liquid-core optical fibres. Octave-spanning supercontinua in the mid-infrared region are observed when pumping the hybrid waveguide with a 460 fs laser (1.95 μm) in the anomalous dispersion regime at nanojoule-level pulse energies. A detailed numerical analysis well correlated with the experiment uncovers clear indicators of emerging hybrid solitons, revealing their impact on the bandwidth, onset energy and noise characteristics of the supercontinua. Our study highlights liquid-core fibres as a promising platform for fundamental optics and applications towards novel coherent and reconfigurable light sources.Here, Chemnitz et al. report experimental evidence for hybrid solitons - a type of solitary wave, which emerges as a result of a strong non-instantaneous nonlinear response in CS2-filled liquid-core optical fibres, demonstrating efficient soliton-driven supercontinuum generation.

Transient absorption imaging of hemes with 2-color, independently tunable visible-wavelength ultrafast source

Pump probe microscopy is a time-resolved multiphoton imaging technique capable of generating contrast between non-fluorescent pigments based on differences in excited-state lifetimes. Here we describe a fiber-based ultrafast system designed for imaging heme proteins with an independently-tunable pulse pair in the visible-wavelength regime. Starting with a 1060 nm fiber amplifier (1.3 W at 63 MHz, 140 fs pulses), visible pulses were produced in the vicinity of 488 nm and 532 nm by doubling the output of a short photonic crystal fiber with a pair of periodically-poled lithium niobate crystals, providing 5-20 mW power in each beam. This was sufficient for acquiring transient absorption images from unstained cryosectioned tissue.

Dispersion characteristics of a suspended-core optical fiber infiltrated with water

In this paper we present a study on the dispersion characteristics in the suspended-core optical fibers made of borosilicate of NC21A glass infiltrated with water. Replacement of air with water results in dramatic improvement of the dispersion characteristics in the fibers, valuable in the process of supercontinuum generation. A near-zero flat dispersion can be achieved in the anomalous or normal dispersion range for various diameters of the core.

Super-flat coherent supercontinuum source in As38.8Se61.2 chalcogenide photonic crystal fiber with all-normal dispersion engineering at a very low input energy

We numerically report super-flat coherent mid-infrared supercontinuum (MIR-SC) generation in a chalcogenide As_38.8Se_61.2 photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The dispersion and nonlinear parameters of As_38.8Se_61.2 chalcogenide PCFs by varying the diameter of the air holes are engineered to obtain all-normal dispersion (ANDi) with high nonlinearities. We show that launching low-energy 50 fs optical pulses with 0.88 kW peak power (corresponding to pulse energy of 0.05 nJ) at a central wavelength of 3.7 μm into a 5 cm long ANDi-PCF generates a flat-top coherent MIR-SC spanning from 2900 to 4575 nm with a high spectral flatness of 3 dB. This ultra-wide and flattened spectrum has excellent stability and coherence properties that can be used for MIR applications such as medical diagnosis of diseases, atmospheric pollution monitoring, and drug detection.

Coherent supercontinuum bandwidth limitations under femtosecond pumping at 2 µm in all-solid soft glass photonic crystal fibers

Two all-solid glass photonic crystal fibers with all-normal dispersion profiles are evaluated for coherent supercontinuum generation under pumping in the 2.0 μm range. In-house boron-silicate and commercial lead-silicate glasses were used to fabricate fibers optimized for either flat dispersion, albeit with lower nonlinearity, or with larger dispersion profile curvature but with much higher nonlinearity. Recorded spectra at the redshifted edge reached 2500-2800 nm depending on fiber type. Possible factors behind these differences are discussed with numerical simulations. The fiber enabling the broadest spectrum is suggested as an efficient first stage of an all-normal dispersion cascade for coherent supercontinuum generation exceeding 3000 nm.

Coherent mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in all-solid chalcogenide microstructured fibers with all-normal dispersion

We report the coherent mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in an all-solid chalcogenide microstructured fiber with all-normal dispersion. The chalcogenide microstructured fiber is a four-hole structure with core material of AsSe2 and air holes that are replaced by As2S5 glass rods. Coherent mid-infrared supercontinuum light extended to 3.3 μm is generated in a 2 cm long chalcogenide microstructured fiber pumped by a 2.7 μm laser.

Direct comparison of shot-to-shot noise performance of all normal dispersion and anomalous dispersion supercontinuum pumped with sub-picosecond pulse fiber-based laser

Coherence of supercontinuum sources is critical for applications involving characterization of ultrafast or rarely occurring phenomena. With the demonstrated spectral coverage of supercontinuum extending from near-infrared to over 10 μm in a single nonlinear fiber, there has been a clear push for the bandwidth rather than for attempting to optimize the dynamic properties of the generated spectrum. In this work we provide an experimental assessment of the shot-to-shot noise performance of supercontinuum generation in two types of soft glass photonic crystal fibers. Phase coherence and intensity fluctuations are compared for the cases of an anomalous dispersion-pumped fiber and an all-normal dispersion fiber. With the use of the dispersive Fourier transformation method, we demonstrate that a factor of 100 improvement in signal-to-noise ratio is achieved in the normal-dispersion over anomalous dispersion-pumped fiber for 390 fs long pump pulses. A double-clad design of the photonic lattice of the fiber is further postulated to enable a pump-related seeding mechanism of normal-dispersion supercontinuum broadening under sub-picosecond pumping, which is otherwise known for similar noise characteristics as modulation instability driven, soliton-based spectra.

Coherent supercontinuum generation in a silicon photonic wire in the telecommunication wavelength range

We demonstrate a fully coherent supercontinuum spectrum spanning 500 nm from a silicon-on-insulator photonic wire waveguide pumped at 1575 nm wavelength. An excellent agreement with numerical simulations is reported. The simulations also show that a high level of two-photon absorption can essentially enforce the coherence of the spectral broadening process irrespective of the pump pulse duration.

Supercontinuum generation at 800 nm in all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber

We have numerically investigated the supercontinuum generation and pulse compression in a specially designed all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber with a flat-top dispersion curve, pumped by typical pulses from state of the art Ti:Sapphire lasers at 800 nm. The optimal combination of pump pulse parameters for a given fiber was found, which provides a wide octave-spanning spectrum with superb spectral flatness (a drop in spectral intensity of ~1.7 dB). With regard to the pulse compression for these spectra, multiple-cycle pulses (~8 fs) can be obtained with the use of a simple quadratic compressor and nearly single-cycle pulses (3.3 fs) can be obtained with the application of full phase compensation. The impact of pump pulse wavelength-shifting relative to the top of the dispersion curve on the generated SC and pulse compression was also investigated. The optimal pump pulse wavelength range was found to be 750 nm < λp < 850 nm, where the distortions of pulse shape are quite small (< -3.3 dB). The influences of realistic fiber fabrication errors on the SC generation and pulse compression were investigated systematically. We propose that the spectral shape distortions generated by fiber fabrication errors can be significantly attenuated by properly manipulating the pump.

Fabrication and characterization of a hybrid four-hole AsSe₂-As₂S₅ microstructured optical fiber with a large refractive index difference

A hybrid four-hole AsSe2-As2S5 microstructured optical fiber (MOF) with a large refractive index difference is fabricated by the rod-in-tube drawing technique. The core and the cladding are made from the AsSe2 glass and As2S5 glass, respectively. The propagation loss is ~1.8 dB/m and the nonlinear coefficient is ~2.03 × 10(4) km(-1)W(-1) at 2000 nm. Raman scattering is observed in the normal dispersion regime when the fiber is pumped by a 2 μm mode-locked picosecond fiber laser. Additionally, soliton is generated in the anomalous dispersion regime when the fiber is pumped by an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) at the pump wavelength of ~3000 nm.

Coherent fiber supercontinuum for biophotonics

Biophotonics and nonlinear fiber optics have traditionally been two independent fields. Since the discovery of fiber-based supercontinuum generation in 1999, biophotonics applications employing incoherent light have experienced a large impact from nonlinear fiber optics, primarily because of the access to a wide range of wavelengths and a uniform spatial profile afforded by fiber supercontinuum. However, biophotonics applications employing coherent light have not benefited from the most well-known techniques of supercontinuum generation for reasons such as poor coherence (or high noise), insufficient controllability, and inadequate portability. Fortunately, a few key techniques involving nonlinear fiber optics and femtosecond laser development have emerged to overcome these critical limitations. Despite their relative independence, these techniques are the focus of this review, because they can be integrated into a low-cost portable biophotonics source platform. This platform can be shared across many different areas of research in biophotonics, enabling new applications such as point-of-care coherent optical biomedical imaging.

Femtosecond parabolic pulse shaping in normally dispersive optical fibers

Formation of parabolic pulses at femtosecond time scale by means of passive nonlinear reshaping in normally dispersive optical fibers is analyzed. Two approaches are examined and compared: the parabolic waveform formation in transient propagation regime and parabolic waveform formation in the steady-state propagation regime. It is found that both approaches could produce parabolic pulses as short as few hundred femtoseconds applying commercially available fibers, specially designed all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber and modern femtosecond lasers for pumping. The ranges of parameters providing parabolic pulse formation at the femtosecond time scale are found depending on the initial pulse duration, chirp and energy. Applicability of different fibers for femtosecond pulse shaping is analyzed. Recommendation for shortest parabolic pulse formation is made based on the analysis presented.

Overcoming temporal polarization instabilities from the latent birefringence in all-normal dispersion, wave-breaking-extended nonlinear fiber supercontinuum generation

The intrinsic weak birefringence in all-normal dispersion highly nonlinear fiber, particularly ultra-high-numerical-aperture fiber, generates supercontinuum with long term polarization instabilities, even for seed pulses launched along the perceived slow axis of the fiber. Highly co/anti-correlated fluctuations in energy between regions of power spectral density mask the extent of the spectral noise in total integrated power measurements. The instability exhibits a seed pulse power threshold above which the output polarization state of the supercontinuum seeds from noise. Eliminating this instability through the utilization of nonlinear fiber with a large designed birefringence, encourages the exploration of compression schemes and seed sources. Here, we include an analysis of the difficulties for seeding supercontinuum with the highly attractive ANDi-type lasers. Lastly, we introduce an intuitive approach for understanding supercontinuum development and evolution. By modifying the traditional characteristic dispersion and nonlinear lengths to track pulse properties within the nonlinear fiber, we find simple, descriptive handles for supercontinuum evolution.

Nanoscale all-normal dispersion optical fibers for coherent supercontinuum generation at ultraviolet wavelengths

We report on the possibilities of nanoscale optical fibers with all-normal dispersion behavior for pulse-preserving and coherent supercontinuum generation at deep ultraviolet wavelengths. We discuss the influence of important parameters such as pump wavelength and fiber diameter, for both optical nanofibers and nanoscale suspended-core optical fibers. Simulations reveal that by appropriate combination of fiber geometry and input pulse parameters, intensive spectral components well below 300 nm are generated. In addition, the impact of preceding taper transitions used for input coupling purposes is discussed in detail.

Wave-breaking-extended fiber supercontinuum generation for high compression ratio transform-limited pulse compression

Wave-breaking often occurs when a short intense optical pulse propagates in a long normally dispersive optical fiber. This effect has conventionally been avoided in fiber (super-)continuum-based pulse compression because the accumulated frequency chirp of the output pulse cannot be fully compensated by a standard prism (or grating) pair. Thus, the spectral extending capability of the wave-breaking has not been utilized to shorten the compressed pulse. We demonstrate that wave-breaking-free operation is not necessary if a 4f pulse shaper-based compressor is employed to remove both the linear and nonlinear chirp of the output pulse. By propagating a 180 fs (FWHM) input pulse in a nonlinear photonic crystal fiber beyond the wave-breaking limit, we compress the wave-breaking-extended supercontinuum output pulse to the bandwidth-limited duration of 6.4 fs (FWHM). The combination of high compression ratio (28×) and short pulse width represents a significant improvement over that attained in the wave-breaking-free regime.

Nonlinear polarization dynamics in a weakly birefringent all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber: toward a practical coherent fiber supercontinuum laser

Dispersion-flattened dispersion-decreased all-normal dispersion (DFDD-ANDi) photonic crystal fibers have been identified as promising candidates for high-spectral-power coherent supercontinuum (SC) generation. However, the effects of the unintentional birefringence of the fibers on the SC generation have been ignored. This birefringence is widely present in nonlinear non-polarization maintaining fibers with a typical core size of 2 µm, presumably due to the structural symmetry breaks introduced in the fiber drawing process. We find that an intrinsic form-birefringence on the order of 10(-5) profoundly affects the SC generation in a DFDD-ANDi photonic crystal fiber. Conventional simulations based on the scalar generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation (GNLSE) fail to reproduce the prominent observed features of the SC generation in a short piece (9-cm) of this fiber. However, these features can be qualitatively or semi-quantitatively understood by the coupled GNLSE that takes into account the form-birefringence. The nonlinear polarization effects induced by the birefringence significantly distort the otherwise simple spectrotemporal field of the SC pulses. We therefore propose the fabrication of polarization-maintaining DFDD-ANDi fibers to avoid these adverse effects in pursuing a practical coherent fiber SC laser.

Generation of high quality, 1.3 cycle pulses by active phase control of an octave spanning supercontinuum

Nonlinear pulse compression based on the generation of ultra-broadband supercontinuum (SC) in an all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber (ANDi PCF) is demonstrated. The highly coherent and smooth octave-spanning SC spectra are generated using 6 fs, 3 nJ pulses from a Ti:Sapphire oscillator for pumping a 13 mm piece of ANDi PCF. Applying active phase control has enabled the generation of 4.5 fs pulses. Additional spectral amplitude shaping has increased the bandwidth of the SC spectra further leading to nearly transform-limited pulses with a duration of 3.64 fs, which corresponds to only 1.3 optical cycles at a central wavelength of 810 nm. This is the shortest pulse duration achieved via compression of SC spectra generated in PCF to date. Due to the high stability and the smooth spectral intensity and phase distribution of the generated SC, an excellent temporal pulse quality exhibiting a pulse contrast of 14 dB with respect to the pre- and post-pulses is achieved.