Supercontinuum source based on ion-exchanged Neodymium doped Q-switched laser

Bertrand Charlet (1) , Lionel Bastard (2) , Jean-Emmanuel Broquin (1) , Davide Bucci (1) , Elise Ghibaudo (1)

1 IMEP-LAHC - Institut de Microélectronique, Electromagnétisme et Photonique - Laboratoire d'Hyperfréquences et Caractérisation
2 IMEP - Institut de Microélectronique, Electromagnétisme et Photonique

Supercontinuum generation consists in launching a high peak power pulsed laser in a nonlinear medium, usually a photonic crystal fiber (PCF). It allows obtaining an ultra-wide band spectrum source. In this article, we present a glass integrated optics Q-switched laser, which can be used to directly pump the PCF, without bulk coupling optics. This laser is made by ion-exchange in a Neodymium-doped phosphate glass. The laser emits 2.4 kW peak power pulses with 0.6 ns duration. The laser output is directly coupled to a PCF. A supercontinuum spectrum spanning from 400 nm to 1600 nm is thus generated.

Domaines: Optique / photonique; Electromagnétisme

Bertrand Charlet, Lionel Bastard, Jean-Emmanuel Broquin, Davide Bucci, Elise Ghibaudo. Supercontinuum source based on ion-exchanged Neodymium doped Q-switched laser. European Conference on Integrated Optics, Apr 2012, Barcelone, Spain. ⟨hal-02917910⟩