Abstract

Wavelength-tunable optical pulse sources with wide tuning range are desired both in fundamental experiments and in applications in practice. The tuning ranges and the pulse durations of output pulses are restricted by the luminescence spectra of the gain media. One of the most promising techniques is supercontinuum (SC) generation [1-3] by the propagation of intense narrow optical pulses in nonlinear media where more than 200-500nm spectra are easily obtained. So far, the SC generation has been reported with solid state lasers or dye lasers so far. Here, we have performed the first demonstration of supercontinuum generation by amplified gain-switched LD pulses and applied it to a tunable optical pulse source in the 1.5µm regime.

© 1993 Optical Society of America