Mid-infrared extension of supercontinuum in chalcogenide suspended core fibre through soliton gas pumping

Julien Fatome (1) , Bertrand Kibler (2) , Mohammed El-Amraoui (2) , Jean-Charles Jules (2) , Grégory Gadret (2) , Frédéric Desevedavy (2) , Frédéric Smektala (2)

1 SLCO
2 ICB - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne

We experimentally demonstrate the mid-infrared extension of supercontinuum in a 1.9-µm suspended core chalcogenide fibre whose zero dispersion wavelength is shifted to 1.9 µm, i.e., into the transparency window of standard silica fibres. Based on the well-known long-pulse regime of supercontinuum generation in silica fibre, we are able to convert and shift a low-cost optical quasi-CW source at 1.53 µm into a large number of interacting femtosecond solitons localized up to 2.1 µm. This optical source called a soliton gas allows us to pump a 50-cm long chalcogenide microstructured fibre near its zero dispersion wavelength, thus leading to an efficient extension of a mid-infrared supercontinuum beyond 2.4 µm.

Mots clés: supercontinuum; optical fiber; PCF; chalcogenide suspended core fiber

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Julien Fatome, Bertrand Kibler, Mohammed El-Amraoui, Jean-Charles Jules, Grégory Gadret, et al.. Mid-infrared extension of supercontinuum in chalcogenide suspended core fibre through soliton gas pumping. Electronics Letters, 2011, 47 (6), pp.398-400. ⟨10.1049/el.2010.7520⟩. ⟨hal-00577037⟩