Supercontinuum generation from 1.87 to 4.03 µm in a ZBLAN fiber is reported. A home-made passively mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser and amplifier, providing 21.4-ps pulses at 81 MHz is used as a pump. The continuum output power is 3.52 W, of which 1.45 and 0.88 W corresponds to wavelengths longer than 3 and 3.5 µm, respectively. A spectrum flatness of 2 dB over a bandwidth of 1710 nm, from 2.02 to 3.73 µm, is also reported. This represents, to our knowledge, the best power conversion in the mid-infrared region and the best spectral flatness for high power supercontinuum generation in ZBLAN fibers directly pumped by 2-µm CW mode-locked fiber lasers and amplifiers.
A mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a step-index fluoroindate fiber pumped by a Tm-doped fiber amplifier seeded with 1.55 µm pulses is reported for the first time. By pumping a 9 µm core fluoride fiber with 3.7 W of power, a broadband supercontinuum with a total output power of 1.41 W and a spectrum extending to 4.1 µm was demonstrated. It is believed that this is the broadest mid-infrared supercontinuum spectrum with Watt-level timeaveraged power generated out of a fluoroindate fiber. The impurities incorporated in the fiber are identified as the main limitation in terms of output power scaling up.
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