Supercontinuum Generation Using an Ultrafast Fibre Laser

Chromacity Ltd report that the excellent coupling efficiency and high stability of its Model 1040 ultrafast fibre laser enables it to generate exceptionally broad and flat supercontinua in the near infrared region (750-1300 nm).

This compact and easy to use laser provides an ideal source to generate a cost-effective near-infrared supercontinuum by focusing ultrashort pulses into non-linear materials, such as photonic crystal fibres.  Unlike solid-state lasers, which tend to produce beams with an elliptical cross section, the output from a Chromacity 1040 laser originates from a single-mode fibre, so it is perfectly symmetric and can be coupled into photonic-crystal fibres with efficiencies of greater than 75%.

In a technical note, the authors discuss how to implement supercontinuum generation in non-linear fibres to provide a cost-effective means of producing broadband near-infrared light for spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, CARS spectroscopy / microscopy and other applications.