Pump polarization-state preservation of picosecond generated white-light supercontinuum

Supercontinuum (SC) generation is among the most interesting nonlinear optical effects lately discovered, due to the complexity of the mechanisms responsible for its generation. This phenomenon, first demonstrated by Alfano and Shapiro using picosecond pulses in condensed phase, has found novel applications in optical pulse compression, timeresolved spectroscopy and material characterization among many others. Here, we demonstrate that picosecond generated SC white-light in water preserves the polarization state: linear, elliptical and circular of the pump source. Moreover, we were able to determine the SC polarization rotation direction in the circular case. With the generation of pulsed circularly polarized SC, new studies and applications are envisaged in the biological, medical and pharmaceutical field. Amino acids, involved in the origin of life, and other chiral structures represent an attractive target for this type of study. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.