January 2017
Spotlight Summary by Luca Tartara
Comparative study of multioctave supercontinuum generation in fused silica, YAG, and LiF in the range of anomalous group velocity dispersion
Recent experimental work on supercontinuum generation in bulk media has shown exciting new opportunities for obtaining ultrabroadband radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared spectral region. A key factor has been the use of long-wavelength pump pulses which has made it possible to access the anomalous group-velocity dispersion region in transparent dielectric media. In such a regime the Kerr nonlinearity counteracts both linear dispersive broadening and diffractive spreading and leads to the formation of highly spatially and temporally compressed pulses exhibiting multi-octave spanning spectra.
In this JOSA B article Garejev and co-authors present a comparative study of supercontinuum generation by pulses at a wavelength of 2.3 µm in fused silica, yttrium aluminum garnet, and lithium fluoride. For input powers of the order of the critical power for self-focusing a dramatic spectral broadening is recorded, covering almost four octaves. The role of the pulse compression induced by the anomalous group velocity dispersion is highlighted, along with the specific features related to the different properties of the three materials. The experimental results help to determine an optimum value of the pump energy leading to the broadest output spectrum. The findings of the work presented in this article thus suggest the existence of a set of pumping parameters which optimize the process of supercontinuum generation in all materials under this propagation regime. This result can be of key importance for applications in fields such as infrared spectroscopy and microscopy, surgery, and metrology.
You must log in to add comments.
In this JOSA B article Garejev and co-authors present a comparative study of supercontinuum generation by pulses at a wavelength of 2.3 µm in fused silica, yttrium aluminum garnet, and lithium fluoride. For input powers of the order of the critical power for self-focusing a dramatic spectral broadening is recorded, covering almost four octaves. The role of the pulse compression induced by the anomalous group velocity dispersion is highlighted, along with the specific features related to the different properties of the three materials. The experimental results help to determine an optimum value of the pump energy leading to the broadest output spectrum. The findings of the work presented in this article thus suggest the existence of a set of pumping parameters which optimize the process of supercontinuum generation in all materials under this propagation regime. This result can be of key importance for applications in fields such as infrared spectroscopy and microscopy, surgery, and metrology.
Add Comment
You must log in to add comments.
Article Information
Comparative study of multioctave supercontinuum generation in fused silica, YAG, and LiF in the range of anomalous group velocity dispersion
Nail Garejev, Gintaras Tamošauskas, and Audrius Dubietis
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 34(1) 88-94 (2017) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF