Coherent Supercontinuum Generation in Step-Index Heavily Ge-Doped Silica Fibers With All Normal Dispersion

Abstract

The step-index heavily germanium-doped silica fibers with all normal dispersion (ANDi) are promising candidates for highly coherent supercontinuum (SC). These ANDi step-index silica fibers are easier to fabricate, splice and handle than silica photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). 40% GeO2 doped step-index silica fiber of 3 μm core diameter has flat and near-zero dispersion which is between −5.5 and 0 ps/nm/km from 1.4 to 2.4 μm. Highly coherent SC spanning from 1050 nm to 2100 nm generated from the ANDi step-index heavily germanium-doped silica fiber pumped at 1560 nm. All-fiber coherent SC source from 1200 nm to 2200 nm is achieved by splicing the ANDi silica fiber with a 1560 nm femtosecond fiber laser of 90% couple efficiency. Moreover, the step-index ANDi germania-core silica fiber of 2.2 μm core diameter is proposed to generate coherent mid-infrared SC from 1.7 to 3 μm. The ANDi step-index silica fibers not only can generate highly coherent broadband SC at near infrared or mid-infrared region but also can easily achieve all-fiber structure coherent SC source. And the experiment of supercontinuum generation in UNNA4 and UHNA7 fibers with different pump wavelengths indicates that the pump of 1064 nm is not suitable for coherent supercontinuum generation in the fiber of UNNA4 and UHNA7.

Keywords

• Supercontinuum
• coherent
• normal dispersion