Chalcogenide-glass polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber for mid-infrared supercontinuum generation

Abstract

In this paper, we report the design and fabrication of a highly birefringent polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber made from chalcogenide glass, and its application to linearly-polarized supercontinuum generation in the mid-infrared region. The fiber was drawn using the casting method from As 38 Se 62 glass which features a transmission window from 2 to 10 μm and a high nonlinear index of 1.13×10 -17 m 2 W −1 . It has a zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) at 4.56 μm for the fast axis and 4.68 μm for the slow axis and, at average ZDW, a large birefringence of 6.5×10 -4 and consequently strong polarization maintaining properties are expected. Using this fiber, we experimentally demonstrate supercontinuum generation spanning from 3.1 to 6.02 μm and 3.33-5.78 μm using femtosecond pumping at 4 μm and 4.53 μm, respectively. We further investigate the supercontinuum bandwidth versus the input pump polarization angle and we show very good agreement with numerical simulations of the two-polarization model based on two coupled generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equations.

Cross-Phase Modulation Instability in PM ANDi Fiber- Based Supercontinuum Generation

“…Finally, aligning the polarizer on the fast axis totally suppresses the sideband, confirming that the sideband is polarized along the slow axis. To simulate the SC generation in the PM-ANDi fiber, we use a Matlab code solving the two coupled generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equations (CGNLSE) for highly birefringent fibers as described in [21]. We used as input parameters a pump wavelength of 1040 nm, a sech-shaped pump pulse with duration of 200 fs (full width half maximum intensity), 12 kW peak power, a longer fiber length of 60 cm for better visibility, the loss profile as described in Fig.…”

Hundreds of meter-long low-loss silicon-core optical fiber

“…These fibers exhibit very low background losses explained by the good quality of the core material and core/cladding interface, making them good support for photonics applications like broadband light sources in the Mid-IR wavelength range which represents the current trend in the field. 8,9…”

Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in chalcogenide glass fibers: a brief review

“…Among them, two key geometrical parameters of MOFs are the diameter of air hole and the pitch between each two holes, which have a great influence on fiber dispersion. However, the preform fabrication methods of ChG MOFs, such as stack and draw [51,52], casting [53][54][55], and mechanical drilling [56,57], are complicated and technically difficult. Even a size error on the submicron level of the air hole diameter or the pitch during the MOF manufacturing process will cause the difference Fig.…”