22.7 W mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in fluorotellurite fibers

In this Letter, we demonstrate 22.7 W mid-infrared (MIR) supercontinuum (SC) generation in all-solid fluorotellurite fibers. All-solid fluorotellurite fibers based on TeO2-BaF2-Y2O3 and TeO2 modified fluoroaluminate glasses are fabricated by using a rod-in-tube method. By using a 0.6 m long fluorotellurite fiber with a core diameter of 11 mu m as the nonlinear medium and a high-power 1.93-2.5 mu m SC fiber laser as the pump source, we obtain 22.7 W SC generation from 0.93 to 3.95 mu m in the fiber for a pump power of 39.7 W. The 10 dB bandwidth is about 1633 nm, and the corresponding spectral range is from 1890 to 3523 nm. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is about 57.2%. Our results show that all-solid fluorotellurite fibers are promising nonlinear media for constructing high-power MIR SC light sources. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America