Abstract

Formation of broad continuous spectra through propagation of short femto-or picosecond-range high power pulses through nonlinear media (also known as super continuum generation, SCG) is a well-known phenomena, but has recently attracted much attention with the emergence of highly nonlinear small-core photonic crystal fibers (PCFs).^1,2 PCFs are attractive for studying nonlinear effects, as they can have very small effective areas, increasing the nonlinear effects dramatically. Furthermore, PCFs can be designed with novel dispersion properties—e.g., with zero dispersion in the visible wavelength range or near zero dispersion over a large wavelength region, a freedom only available in PCFs. Applications of SCG cover such diverse fields as spectroscopy, sensors, optical coherence tomography and telecommunication WDM sources.

© 2002 Optical Society of America