Influence of pump fiber laser conditions at 1550 nm on broadband infrared supercontinuum generation in all-solid all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fibers

Supercontinuum generation (SG) in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) usually takes advantage of soliton dynamics, when pump wavelength is located in the anomalous dispersion region near the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber. This results in broader bandwidth than pumping in the normal dispersion region (NDR). SG in NDR is of interest, because of its potential for high degree of coherence and low intensity fluctuations. It was experimentally demonstrated in silica fibers and PCFs pumped around 1000 nm, covering the visible and near-infrared. We developed an all-solid PCF with hexagonal lattice made from N-F2 capillaries, with lattice constant=2.275 mu m, filling factor d/Lambda=0.9, and a solid N-F2 core with 2,5 mu m diameter. The capillaries were filled with thermally matched borosilicate glass rods with lower refractive index. The PCF has all-normal dispersion, flattened within 14002750 nm (-35 to -29 ps/ nm/ km) and a local maximum of -29 ps/ nm/ km at 1550 nm. Measured attenuation in 1500-1600 nm is around 3.2 dB/ m. Nonlinear coefficient calculated at 1550 nm is 17/ W/ m. We numerically investigate the evolution of supercontinuum formation with a maximum bandwidth of 900-2400 nm. Considered pump pulse lengths were between 1 ps and 50 fs, with corresponding peak powers from 20 kW to 200 kW. Measured coupling efficiency using 20x microscope objective was 50%. One-photon-per-mode noise was used to simulate pump noise and multi-shot SG spectra were calculated. Preliminary experimental results are in good agreement with developed model.