Supercontinuum generation in microstructured fibers

Summary form only given.We present a theoretical investigation of the nonlinear propagation of femtosecond pulses tuned near the zero-dispersion point of a fiber waveguide for conditions consistent with recent experiments in microstructured fibers. Although we include all the important processes for such an interaction, such as Raman and shock-wave formation, we find that the spectral envelope of the generated continuum is primarily determined by the higher-order dispersion of the fiber. An example of the generated continuum spectrum under conditions similar to the experiments is shown.