High-power mid-infrared supercontinuum sources: Current status and future perspectives

Versatile and widely tunable mid-infrared erbium doped ZBLAN fiber laser

“…5); a little over twice the monochromator minimum resolution of 0.13 nm indicating that the laser was not running on a single longitudinal mode. At a maximum tuned power of 47 mW, this represents a spectral brightness of 160 mW/nm which compares favorably with recent reports of supercontinuum generation in this region of the mid-infrared [11]. The free-spectral range of this resonator is 32 MHz and mode beating was observed at this wavelength using a radio frequency spectrum analyzer.…”

Spectral-temporal composition matters when cascading supercontinua into the mid-infrared

“…Together with the high beam quality and intensity of a fiber-delivered beam SCG in chalcogenide fibers has opened the prospects for new powerful MIR analytical tools for broadband fundamental vibrational spectroscopy [6], optical coherence tomography [7], and hyperspectral microscopy [8,9]. Currently, the most mature MIR fiber SC technology is based on fluoride glasses, such as ZrF 4 -BaF 2 -LaF 3 -AlF 3 -NaF (ZBLAN), owing to their high-power capabilities and excellent transmission from the UV to about 4.5 µm [10,11]. Due to these unique properties commercial ZBLAN SC lasers are now emerging [12][13][14], and in this regard cascaded SCG has been one of the key enabling technologies for efficient ZBLAN supercontinuum sources, because it has enabled the use of matured technologies such as semiconductor laser diodes, silica fibers, and fiber amplifiers [12,14,15].…”

“…Due to these unique properties commercial ZBLAN SC lasers are now emerging [12][13][14], and in this regard cascaded SCG has been one of the key enabling technologies for efficient ZBLAN supercontinuum sources, because it has enabled the use of matured technologies such as semiconductor laser diodes, silica fibers, and fiber amplifiers [12,14,15]. However, the use of ZBLAN fibers limits the spectrum to 4.5 µm due to strong multiphonon absorption in the host material [11]. Extending the cascading scheme to chalcogenide fibers presents an attractive alternative to direct pumping schemes.…”

“…Consequently, pumping a step-index silica fiber with a laser diode or erbium-doped silica fiber laser at 1.55 μm, inherently results in a SC where the long-wavelength edge is composed of solitons. Such an SC has been found to be an excellent pump source for continued broadening in ZBLAN fibers through soliton self-frequency shifting (SSFS), because it extends above the ZDW of typical step-index ZBLAN fibers at around 1.6 μm [11]. Using this scheme efficient SCG in ZBLAN fibers has been demonstrated using various combinations of seed lasers and optical amplifiers [12,14,15,18].…”

Review of infrared fiber-based components

“…Alternatively, sources based on nonlinear optical conversion could be used to generate signals in the infrared at significant monetary cost and space. The commercialization of quantum cascade laser, intraband cascade lasers, and demonstration of broadband supercontinuum sources [1] has filled the midinfrared spectrum and reduced the space footprint (<1 m 2 ).…”