title: Low-threshold supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear chalcogenide nanowires.
abstract: We demonstrate low-threshold supercontinuum generated in a highly nonlinear arsenic selenide chalcogenide nanowire with tailored dispersion. The tapered submicrometer chalcogenide fiber exhibits an ultrahigh nonlinearity, n(2) approximately 1.1x10(-17) m(2)/W and an effective mode area of 0.48 mum(2), yielding an effective nonlinearity of gamma approximately 93.4 W/m, which is over 80,000 times larger than standard silica single-mode fiber at a wavelength of approximately 1550 nm. This high nonlinearity, in conjunction with the engineered anomalous dispersion, enables low-threshold soliton fission leading to large spectral broadening at a dramatically reduced peak power of several watts, corresponding to picojoule energy.
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. yeom@physics.usyd.edu.au
authors.forename: Dong-Il
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Yeom
authors.forename: Eric C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Mägi
authors.forename: Michael R E
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Lamont
authors.forename: Michaël A F
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Roelens
authors.forename: Libin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Benjamin J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Eggleton