Abstract

We present an extensive investigation of the polarization properties of a femtosecond-laser-induced white-light (WL) continuum generated in a cubic crystal $\left({\mathrm{CaF}}_2\right)$. The WL spectrum and threshold energies have been examined for input polarizations with various degrees of ellipticity. For linear input polarization, the WL spectrum shows strong depolarization around the input wavelength, while the preservation of the input polarization is pronounced toward the blue spectral region. The observed depolarization effect has been elucidated in the framework of current models for WL generation.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

Control of the polarization properties of the supercontinuum generation in a noncentrosymmetric crystal

R. Sai Santosh Kumar, K. L. N. Deepak, and D. Narayana Rao
Opt. Lett. 33(11) 1198-1200 (2008)

Supercontinuum generated in calcite with chirped femtosecond pulses

V. Kartazaev and R. R. Alfano
Opt. Lett. 32(22) 3293-3295 (2007)

Depolarization of white light generated by ultrashort laser pulses in optical media

A. K. Dharmadhikari, F. A. Rajgara, and D. Mathur
Opt. Lett. 31(14) 2184-2186 (2006)

Nonlinear optical transformation of the polarization state of circularly polarized light with holographic-cut cubic crystals

N. Minkovski, S. Kourtev, L. Canova, A. Jullien, O. Albert, and R. Lopez-Martens
Opt. Lett. 36(2) 301-303 (2011)

Self-focusing dynamics of polarization vortices in Kerr media

Amiel A. Ishaaya, Luat T. Vuong, Taylor D. Grow, and Alexander L. Gaeta
Opt. Lett. 33(1) 13-15 (2008)