Analysis of Octave spanning Supercontinuum generation in a solid normal dispersion Photonic crystal fiber

Abstract

Supercontinuum (SC) generation in a lead-silicate all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber was experimentally investigated by pumping with 100 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 80 MHz from an erbium-doped fiber laser at 1565 nm. The generated SC spectrum, spanning from 1100 nm to 2150 nm, was characterized and analyzed. The broadening mechanisms were found to be dominated by self-phase modulation, optical wave breaking, and four-wave mixing. The impact of coupling efficiency on spectral evolution was also examined. The outcome showed that increasing coupling efficiency enhanced spectral broadening. The experimental results were compared to similar experimental works and numerical simulation from peer reviewed literature, revealing good agreement while highlighting polarization noise as a limiting factor. These findings contribute to the optimization of coherent, broadband SC sources for ultrafast spectroscopy and metrology applications.