title: Spectrally smooth supercontinuum from 350 nm to 3 mum in sub-centimeter lengths of soft-glass photonic crystal fibers.
abstract: The conversion of light fields in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) capitalizes on the dramatic enhancement of several optical nonlinearities. We present here spectrally smooth, highly broadband supercontinuum radiation in a short piece of high-nonlinearity soft-glass PCF. This supercontinuum spans several optical octaves, with a spectral range extending from 350 nm to beyond 3000 nm. The selection of an appropriate propagation-length determines the spectral quality of the supercontinuum generated. Experimentally, we clearly identify two regimes of nonlinear pulse transformation: when the fiber length is much shorter than the dispersion length, soliton propagation is not important and a symmetric supercontinuum spectrum arises from almost pure self-phase modulation. For longer fiber lengths the supercontinuum is formed by the breakup of multiple Raman-shifting solitons. In both regions very broad supercontinuum radiation is produced.
authors.forename: F G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Omenetto
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Wolchover
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Wehner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Efimov
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: V V R K
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: N Y
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Joly
authors.forename: P St J
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Russell