Mid-infrared Supercontinuum Generation to ∼4.7 μm in a ZBLAN Fiber Pumped by an Optical Parametric Generator

Abstract

We present mid-infrared (mid-IR) supercontinuum (SC) generation from a stepindex fluorozirconate fiber pumped at 2.25 μm. When 70 ps pulses with a peak power of 128 kW were launched into a ZBLAN fiber with a zero dispersion wavelength at 1.603 μm, SC was extended to 4695 nm, with spectral flatness below 10 dB, in the 2.00-4.56 μm range. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such a broad and flat mid-IR SC spectrum from a ZBLAN fiber pumped with ps pulses has been achieved. The SC evolution as a function of pump wavelength and pump pulse energy was also experimentally demonstrated.

Broadband and top-flat mid-infrared supercontinuum generation with 3.52 W time-averaged power in a ZBLAN fiber directly pumped by a 2-µm mode-locked fiber laser and amplifier

“…The losses within the wavelength range of 1.3-3.75 µm were below 0.05 and 0.2 dB/m at 4 µm. The fiber ZDW was measured to be 1603 nm [10]. Both ends of the fluoride fiber are angle cleaved to avoid unwanted damage caused by Fresnel reflections.…”

“…When mid-IR spectral region is concerned, soft glass fibers, including tellurite [5,6], fluoride [1,[7][8][9][10][11][12] and chalcogenide [13,14] fibers can be adopted as nonlinear media. However, among all soft glass fibers, only heavy metal fluoride fibers, including fluorozirconate (ZBLAN) [15][16][17][18][19] and fluoroindate (InF 3 ) [20,21] are technologically mature to be used for multi Watt level SC generation.…”

Cascaded Fiber-based Mid-Infrared Supercontinuum Source

“…Currently, there is a significant research effort focused on extending the wavelength coverage towards the mid-Infrared (Mid-IR) in the 2 to 20 µm molecular fingerprint region [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Various soft glasses based on chalcogenide (As 2 S 3 , As 2 Se 3 , GeAsSe) [3,8], tellurite (TeO 2 ) [19], telluride (GeTe, GeAsTeSe) [20,21], heavy-metal oxide (PbO-Bi 2 O 3 -Ga 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -CdO) [10] and ZBLAN (ZrF 4 -BaF 2 -LaF 3 -AlF 3 -NaF) [23][24][25][26], have been used for drawing highly nonlinear infrared fibers, and experiments have shown efficient mid-IR SC generation up to 14 µm in chalcogenide optical fibers [3] and up to 16 µm in telluride fibers [21]. However, most of these mid-IR SC sources have been demonstrated using bulky mid-IR pump sources such as optical parametric oscillators (OPO) and amplifiers (OPA).…”

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

“…Although much progress in this field has been reported recently, state-of-the-art mid-IR SC systems are still in their infancy and considerable effort is required before mature broadband IR SC light sources beyond 5 μm are made available for industrial applications. Soft glasses, such as chalcogenide (As 2 S 3 , As 2 Se 3 , GeAsSe) [1][2][3][4][5], Tellurite (TeO 2 ), chalcohalides (GeTe, GeAsTeSe) [18,19], heavy metal oxide (PbO-Bi 2 O 3 -Ga 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -CdO) [9] and ZBLAN (ZrF 4 -BaF 2 -LaF 3 -AlF 3 -NaF) [20][21][22] have been widely used for drawing highly nonlinear infrared fibers, and experiments have shown efficient SC generation in the mid-IR up to 15 μm [1,2], and up to 11 μm using all-fiber cascaded systems [23,24]. Among the wide variety of infrared fibers, chalcogenide-glass-based optical fibers (composed of S, Se or Te) are excellent photonic platforms for nonlinear applications in the mid-IR due to their wider transmission window, tailorable dispersion in the mid-IR, and high optical nonlinearity up to hundred times greater than silica or ZBLAN glasses [1][2][3][4][5].…”