Octave-spanning, continuous-wave supercontinuum generation with record power using standard telecom fibers pumped with power-combined fiber lasers

We have demonstrated a record output power of similar to 72 W, octave-spanning, nearly single-mode, continuous-wave supercontinuum with a bandwidth of similar to 1050 nm using standard telecom fiber as the nonlinear medium in an allfiber architecture. We have utilized the recently proposed nonlinear power combining architecture by which power scaling is achieved using multiple independent Ytterbium lasers operating at different wavelengths. In this Letter, Raman conversions in the fiber assist in combining multiple input laser lines into a single wavelength which then undergoes supercontinuum generation. The architecture is based on the recently proposed grating-free, cascaded Raman lasers based on distributed feedback. Here all Raman conversions are well seeded, thereby enhancing the efficiency of supercontinuum generation to similar to 44%. In this Letter, we have obtained power spectral densities (PSDs) of > 3 mW/nm from 850 to 1350 nm and a high PSD of > 100 mW/nm from 1350 to 1900 nm. Here we have also investigated the power-combined supercontinuum generation for different pump wavelength combinations demonstrating the flexibility of this technique. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America