Over-five octaves wide Raman combs in high-power picosecond-laser pumped H2-filled inhibited coupling Kagome fiber

We report on the generation of over 5 octaves wide Raman combs using inhibited coupling Kagome guiding hollow-core photonic crystal fiber filled with hydrogen and pumped with 22.7 W average power and 27 picosecond pulsed fiber laser. Combs spanning from similar to 321 nm in the UV to similar to 12.5 mu m in the long-wavelength IR (i.e. from 24 THz to 933 THz) with different spectral content and with an output average power of up to similar to 10 W were generated. In addition to the clear potential of such a comb as a laser source emitting at spectral ranges, which existing technology poorly addresses like long-wavelength IR and UV, the combination of high Raman net gain and short pump-pulse duration makes these spectra an excellent candidate for intra-pulse waveform synthesis. (C)2015 Optical Society of America