Supercontinuum generation in fused fibre couplers

Author

Birks, T.A. ; Wadsworth, William J. ; St J Russell, P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Univ. of Bath, UK

fYear

2001

fDate

11-11 May 2001

Firstpage

412

Lastpage

413

Abstract

Summary form only given. Supercontinuum (SC) light with a 400-1600 nm spectrum has been generated in optical fibres using unamplified femtosecond Ti:sapphire lasers. The fibre can be a special microstructure (photonic crystal) fibre with a core surrounded by large air holes, or it can be a standard telecommunications fibre that is tapered-narrowed by heating and stretching. In both cases, the waveguide is essentially silica (diameter /spl sim/2 /spl mu/m) surrounded by air. The small diameter and large refractive index step give high intensities and desirable dispersion characteristics. We demonstrate SC generation in fused couplers made by tapering two fibres together.

Keywords

light sources; optical beam splitters; optical fibre couplers; optical fibre dispersion; photonic band gap; 2 micron; 400 to 1600 nm; SC generation; beam splitters; common narrow waist; dispersion characteristics; fused fibre couplers; high intensities; large refractive index step; microstructure fibre; photonic crystal fibre; supercontinuum generation; tapered fibres; unamplified femtosecond Ti:sapphire lasers; Fiber lasers; Microstructure; Optical fiber couplers; Optical fibers; Optical waveguides; Photonic crystals; Supercontinuum generation; Telecommunication standards; Ultrafast optics; Waveguide lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2001. CLEO '01. Technical Digest. Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-662-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.2001.947985

Filename

947985