Control of supercontinuum pulse-to-pulse fluctuations by fiber tapering

Control of supercontinuum pulse-to-pulse fluctuations by fiber tapering is reported. Supercontinuum properties were investigated in a 15 m uniform photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as a reference and in a tapered PCF of the same length. The outer diameter (OD) evolution of the uniform and decreasing fibers were measured during the drawing process and are reported in the red and blue curves respectively. The pump used to generate the supercontinuum is a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser delivering 600 ps pulses at 1064 nm with a repetition rate of 7 kHz.