title: Black-light continuum generation in a silica-core photonic crystal fiber.
abstract: We report the observation of a broadband continuum spanning from 350 to 470 nm in the black-light region of the electromagnetic spectrum as a result of picosecond pumping a solid-core silica photonic crystal fiber at 355 nm. This was achieved despite strong absorption and a large normal dispersion of silica glass in the UV. Further investigations reveal that the continuum generation results from the interplay of intermodally phase-matched four-wave mixing and cascaded Raman scattering. We also discuss the main limitations in terms of bandwidth and power due to temporal walk-off, fiber absorption, and the photo darkening effect, and we suggest simple solutions.
authors.affiliation: Institut FEMTO-ST, Département d’Optique P M Duffieux, Université de Franche-Comté, CNRS, Besançon, France. thibaut.sylvestre@univ‐fcomte.fr
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sylvestre
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ragueh
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stiller
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fanjoux
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Barviau
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mussot
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kudlinski