The Open Optics Journal

2010, 4 : 29-36
Published online 2010 October 13. DOI: 10.2174/1874328501004010029
Publisher ID: TOOPTSJ-4-29

Infrared Supercontinuum Generation in Cladding of a Hollow-Core Fiber Pumped with a 1-ns 1.06-µm Nd:YAG/Cr:YAG Microchip Laser

Alexander V. Kiryanov , Vladimir P. Minkovich , Igor V. Mel’nikov and Alexander B. Sotsky
Optolink Ltd., Bldg. 5, Proezd 4806, Zelenograd, Moscow 124498, Russian Federation.

ABSTRACT

We present an experimental treatment for the super-continuum (SC) generated through a hollow-core fiber by a nanosecond pulse launched from a Q-switched microchip Nd3+:YAG/Cr4+:YAG laser. The SC spectrally spans over a half-octave in near IR (~1.0–1.5 µm) and is attainable yet at fairly moderate fiber length (tens of cm). The SC generation process is shown to originate from silica nodes of the fiber cladding (“secondary cores”), where the pump radiation is tightly focused, and to be triggered out by a four-wave mixing process, which is boosted up by the Raman response in the fiber.

Keywords:

Supercontinuum generation, hollow-core photonics crystal fiber, microchip laser.