Supercontinuum Generation in the Cladding Modes of an Endlessly Single-Mode Fiber

Abstract

In photonic crystal fibers, light guidance can be achieved by a central defect of a periodic structure of air holes in a silica glass matrix and the dispersion can be adjusted over a wide spectral range to enhance nonlinear effects. By coupling short pulse laser radiation into the core with tight confinement and utilizing the nonlinear properties of glass, this radiation can be converted to a broad spectral distribution. The tight confinement puts limits on the maximum pulse fluence propagating in the core due to the damage threshold of the glass. Therefore, when higher power spectral densities are desired, it is favorable to spread the generation of light over a much larger area to prevent fiber damage. We present here a method for generating a supercontinuum using the cladding modes of an endlessly single-mode fiber. These modes generate a supercontinuum utilizing a multimodal quasi-continuum of states, for which dispersion is governed by the guiding properties of the material between the air-filled holes in the cladding. The system also provides experimental access to unique phenomena in nonlinear optics. Simulations of the propagation properties of the core mode and cladding modes were compared with measurements of the group-velocity dispersion in a modified white-light Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The coupling of similar laser parameters into the cladding of the photonic crystal fiber enables a significant increase in conversion efficiency in the visible spectral range compared with the core-pumped case.