Research Article Vol. 55, No.

23 / August 10 2016 / Applied Optics 6355

Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in silica

photonic crystal fibers
WANJUN BI,1,2 JUANJUAN GAO,1,2 XIA LI,1,2 LIANGMING XIONG,3 AND MEISONG LIAO1,*
1
Key Laboratory of Material for High Power Laser, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Shanghai 201800, China
2
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3
State Key Laboratory of Optical Fibre and Cable Manufacture Technology, Strategy Center, YOFC, Wuhan 430073, China
*Corresponding author: [email protected]

Received 4 May 2016; revised 28 June 2016; accepted 18 July 2016; posted 19 July 2016 (Doc. ID 264532); published 8 August 2016

A mid-infrared supercontinuum (SC) light source, which has important applications in many fields, has been
extensively investigated in soft glass fibers. However, the poor instinct properties of soft glass fibers and the
development of ultrashort pulse lasers left an opportunity for mid-infrared SC generation in silica fiber.
Until now, silica fiber has been the commonly used medium for SC generation due to its outstanding properties.
In this paper, mid-infrared SC generation in short silica photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) is investigated theoretically
and systematically. In the case of a 1550 nm pump, the soliton self-frequency shift effect is utilized to extend the
long wavelength edge of SC. Adopting a fiber that has a zero dispersion wavelength away from the pump pulse is a
benefit for the suppression of blue spectral component and energy distribution in the long wavelength band. In
the case of a 1950 nm pump, the generation of a red-shifted dispersive wave is an efficient way to extend the long
wavelength edge of SC. Additionally, the coherence for femtosecond pulse pumping is discussed in this paper.
Finally, the long wavelength edge of SC is beyond 3000 nm when a 1950 nm femtosecond pump pulse propagates
in a PCF with negative dispersive slope around the pump pulse. © 2016 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (060.4370) Nonlinear optics, fibers; (320.6629) Supercontinuum generation; (060.2280) Fiber design and fabrication.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/AO.55.006355

1. INTRODUCTION Most SCs generated in silica PCFs span the visible and
A mid-infrared (IR) supercontinuum (SC) light source has im- near-IR regions. Using a mode-locked Yb: fiber ring laser, a
portant applications in many fields, such as biomedicine [1,2], visible white light SC covering from 500 nm to 1600 nm
spectroscopy [3], optical coherence tomography [4], micro- was generated in a tapered silica PCF [16]. A picosecond fiber
scopes [5], infrared counteraction [6], and optical tissue master oscillator power amplifier pumped a high power SC
ablation [7]. Soft glass fibers, including fluoride fibers [8,9], source covering an at least 0.4–2.25 μm spectral region has
tellurite fibers [10,11], and chalcogenide fibers [12,13], are been demonstrated in a uniform PCF [17]. Directly pumped
usually used as the medium for mid-IR SC generation because by a 2054 nm nanosecond laser, the long wavelength edge of
of their wide transmission windows in the mid-IR band. The SC is extended to 2500 nm approximately in a standard single-
long-wavelength edge of the generated SC has reached 13 μm mode fiber [18]. The wavelengths of commercially available
using ultrahigh numerical aperture chalcogenide fiber, covering lasers are usually 800 nm [19], 1064 nm [20], 1550 nm
the molecular fingerprint region [14]. [21], and 1950 nm. To obtain SC generation in the mid-IR
Compared with soft glass fibers, silica glass has outstanding region, using a pump pulse with a long wavelength is more
physical and chemical properties, especially its high mechanical suitable.
strength, which is at least one order of magnitude stronger than Both continuous wave [22–24] and ultrashort pulses
that of soft glasses. This determines that the silica glass can be [25–27] can be used to generate SC in silica fiber. To generate
easily drawn into microstructured fibers with high quality and SC with a continuous pump wave, a long fiber length is usually
low loss. Additionally, the raw material of silica glass is much required. Since ultrashort pulses (picosecond and femtosecond)
cheaper than that of soft glasses. However, the material loss of feature high peak pump power, sufficient SC can be induced in
silica [15], as shown in Fig. 1, increases drastically at wave- a short fiber. If the fiber length is short enough (only several
lengths beyond 2.5 μm. This effectively limits SC evolution centimeters), the fiber loss can be reduced greatly and it is
into the mid-IR region. possible to generate mid-IR SC in silica fiber.

1559-128X/16/236355-08 Journal © 2016 Optical Society of America

 6356 Vol. 55, No. 23 / August 10 2016 / Applied Optics Research Article

Fig. 1. Material loss of pure silica glass in mid-IR region.

In this paper, several silica PCFs with different dispersion

and nonlinearity characteristics are designed elaborately.
Mid-IR SC generation in short silica PCFs pumped by the
ultrashort pulse with a long wavelength is explored numerically
and systematically.

2. NONLINEAR FIBER
Two major components for SC generation are pump pulse and
nonlinear fiber. To generate mid-IR SC in silica fiber, an appro-
priate pump pulse, in conjunction with PCF that hold reasonable
dispersion and low loss, is essential. The PCF must be designed
properly to minimize the negative impact of optical fiber loss.
Many structures of PCF have been proposed so far [28,29].
The cross section of PCF in our investigation is shown in
Fig. 2(a). It consists of six rings of air holes arranged in a hex-
Fig. 2. (a) Cross section of PCF. (b) Dispersion curves and confine-
agon. The pitch Λ is constant for a fiber. The three inner
ment loss (the insert) when Φ1 is increased from 0.32 μm to 0.8 μm
(outer) layers of air holes have the same size Φ1
Φ2 . The chro- with Λ  1.5 μm, Φ2  1.22 μm. (c) Dispersion curves and confine-
matic dispersion and the confinement loss are calculated using ment loss (the insert) when Φ2 is increased from 0.8 μm to 1.4 μm
the full-vector finite element method (FEM) with a perfect with Λ  1.5 μm, Φ1  0.6 μm.
match layer (PML) boundary condition.
First, we reveal the dependence of dispersion curve on fiber
parameters, such as the air hole diameter and the air hole pitch X i k1 ∂k A
size. As shown in Fig. 2(b), when Λ and Φ2 are maintained at ∂A α
 A− β
Λ  1.5 μm and Φ2  1.22 μm, the dispersion curves of ∂z 2 k≥2
k! k ∂t k
PCFs are greatly affected by the variation of Φ1 . However, 2i ∂
the variation of Φ1 has little influence on the confinement loss,  iγ
1 − f R 
jAj2 A −
jAj2 A
ω0 ∂t
which is shown as the insert. Figure 2(c) illustrates the dispersion   Z 
curves obtained when Λ  1.5 μm and Φ1  0.6 μm, but Φ2 i ∂ ∞
 iγf R 1  A hR
tjA
t − τj2 dτ ; (1)
is decreased from 1.4 μm to 0.8 μm. The right wing of the ω0 ∂t 0
dispersion curve shrinks a little while the confinement loss
where A is the light field envelope, z is the transmission dis-
increases a lot as Φ2 diminishes. The confinement loss when
tance, α is the linear loss, and t is time. βk is the k-th order
Φ2  1.4 μm is too low to see in the insert of Fig. 2(c).
dispersion coefficient in Taylor series expansion of propagation
Φ1 has more influence on the fiber dispersion and Φ2 can be
constant. γ  n2
ω0 ω0 ∕cAeff
ω0  is the nonlinear coefficient,
utilized to modify the confinement loss. The desired fiber
where Aeff
ω0  is the effective area of the fundamental mode
parameters can be obtained by modifying Λ, Φ1 , and Φ2 .
and n2
ω0  is the nonlinear index of silica, both evaluated
at the reference frequency ω0. In practice, n2 is wavelength-
3. THEORETICAL MODEL dependent. In [31], the reported best value of n2 is 2.74 ×
The numerical simulation used in our study is based on the 10−20 m2 ∕W at 1053 nm, and this value fluctuates slightly over
nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) [30], which can be 1053 nm. The nonlinear index of silica varies largely in the
written as Eq. (1): short wavelength band and is weakly wavelength-dependent
 Research Article Vol. 55, No. 23 / August 10 2016 / Applied Optics 6357

in the long wavelength band. We adopt n2  2.74 ×

10−20 m2 ∕W in our simulation as we focus on SC generation
in the mid-IR band in this paper. In general, the total loss of
fiber is mainly composed of material loss, confinement loss, and
scattering loss. The scattering loss due to inherent roughness of
the interfaces is neglected in our investigation because the value
of scattering loss is ∼0.2 dB∕m with a core diameter of about 1
to 2 μm [32], which is small. Additionally, this kind of loss is
shown to be weakly dependent on wavelength [32]. As a result,
the scattering loss can be considered just one kind of back-
ground loss and is negligible. The silica material loss shown
in Fig. 1 and the confinement loss of PCFs calculated by
FEM are included in our simulations in the loss coefficient
α. The material loss weighs heavily in the final total loss. k
is considered up to 9 to ensure correct dispersion in the wave-
Fig. 3. Dispersion curves and confinement loss curves (the insert)
length range of interest. The left hand of Eq. (1) is used to
of PCF a and PCF b.
simulate linear propagation effects while the right hand is used
to model nonlinear effects like self-phase modulation (SPM),
four-wave mixing (FWM), and Raman effect.
In SC generation, the coherence of spectra from different the insert figure illustrates the confinement loss curves only
pump pulses is a crucial parameter to estimate the quality of because the material loss takes up a majority in the fiber total
the SC. The degree of coherence is studied by calculating loss. The ZDWs of PCF a and PCF b are 1530 nm and
the spectra with random noise seeds, which is defined as 1240 nm, respectively. Picosecond pulse and femtosecond
  pulse are applied to pump the PCFs.
 hE 1
λE 2
λi 

1 
jg12 j  p ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi; (2)
2
hjE 1
λj ihjE 2
λj i
2 2
1. Picosecond Pulse Pumping
where E 1 and E 2 are continuum spectra generated with input Figure 4 demonstrates the pulse evolution in frequency domain
quantum noise in the simulation. The angle brackets denote and time domain when a pulse with wavelength of 1550 nm,
the ensemble average of over 100 independently generated pairs pulse width of 1 ps, and pulse peak power of 100 kW
of SC generation [11]. propagates through PCF a and PCF b.
The theoretical simulation has been compared with [33] to At the first stage of propagation, SPM is the main nonlinear
ensure our code works well. process, which is responsible for the spectral broadening. For a
pump pulse of 1 ps, the soliton-like pulse sequences in the
anomalous-dispersion regime, induced by the noise sensitive
4. SC GENERATION modulation instability (MI), are generated and dominate the
In this paper, two kinds of ultrashort pulses (femtosecond pulse
and picosecond pulse) are considered. The picosecond laser,
which has been successfully investigated until now, has high
average power and can be applied for the generation of SC with
high power density. The femtosecond laser, which usually has
high peak power, can be utilized for the generation of
coherent SC.
Generally, the broadening of SC depends on the pulse du-
ration and on the relative location of the pump wavelength and
the zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) of fibers [34]. To ex-
tend the SC into the mid-IR band, a pulse with wavelength of
1550 nm or 1950 nm is adopted to generate SC. PCFs based
on the same geometry shown in Fig. 2(a) for mid-IR SC
generation are designed elaborately.
A. SC Generation with 1550 nm Pump Pulse
In this section, two PCFs with different dispersion characters
are designed and SC generation with 1550 nm pump pulse is
investigated. The fiber parameters Λ, Φ1 , and Φ2 are chosen
elaborately to obtain the fiber ZDW around 1550 nm. For
PCF a, Λ  1.50 μm, Φ1  0.32 μm, and Φ2  1.22 μm.
For PCF b, Λ3.00μm, Φ1  0.60 μm, and Φ2  2.00 μm. Fig. 4. Evolution of the picosecond pulse with wavelength of
The dispersion curves of the two PCFs are shown in Fig. 3. In 1550 nm in frequency domain and time domain in (a) and
order to display the confinement loss of different fibers clearly, (b) PCF a and (c) and (d) PCF b.
 6358 Vol. 55, No. 23 / August 10 2016 / Applied Optics Research Article

following pulse evolution. In the case of PCF a, as the pump enhances a mix of various nonlinear effects [35]. Finally, a
wavelength is in the vicinity of the fiber ZDW, FWM arises nearly symmetrical SC spectrum is obtained around the pump
and two sidebands of FWM are clearly seen in Fig. 4(a). pulse. The dominant mechanisms for PCF b are the soliton
With the gradual formation and the red-shifting of solitons, red-shift, the DW generation, and their interaction. Several
dispersive waves (DWs) in the short wavelength band, which fundamental solitons are sequentially emitted from the pump
satisfied the phase matching condition, are generated. Given pulse after the fission process. The soliton shifts to the long
that the soliton number is large for the picosecond pulse, a typ- wavelength under the influence of SRS. When the group-
ical SC is generated after the sufficient interaction between velocity matching is satisfied, a distinct DW is generated in
DWs and solitons. The generated SC is a little asymmetric the normal dispersion region. After the collision between
due to the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) effect. The soliton and DW, some DW gets through the soliton, and
SC energy is almost equally distributed over the whole SC the majority of the DW is reflected back from the soliton
range. For PCF b, the resonance between solitons and DWs through a nonlinear cross-phase modulation process [36].
is blocked since there is a spectral distance between the fiber After some propagation, the reflected DW catches up with
ZDW and the pump wavelength. As a result, a gap shows the soliton, which is continuously decelerated by the Raman
up in the short wavelength band and most energy is distributed effect. The process can be repeated many times [37]. The sol-
in the long wavelength band. iton number for a femtosecond pulse is lower compared to that
for a picosecond pulse. As a result, the interaction between the
2. Femtosecond Pulse Pumping DWs and the solitons is weakened. This kind of soliton dynam-
The pulse width is shortened from 1 ps to 100 fs in this section. ics is also suitable for PCF a. However, this interaction process
The spectral and temporal evolutionary processes when a pulse is more typical in PCF b. Compared with Fig. 4(c), the gap
with wavelength of 1550 nm, pulse width of 100 fs, and pump between the DW and the infrared spectral components is more
peak power of 100 kW propagates along PCF a and PCF b are obvious in Fig. 5(c). The blue-shifted DW is away from the
plotted in Fig. 5. pump pulse and holds little energy. More energy is concen-
As shown in Fig. 5, the fiber length of 7 cm is enough for SC trated on the long wavelength range.
generation in both PCF a and PCF b. The fiber loss is reduced The coherence is calculated based on Eq. (2). Figure 6 shows
greatly in such a short fiber. Since the pump wavelength is in the coherence and the spectrum of a single shot along the wave-
the anomalous-dispersion region of both PCF a and PCF b, the length under femtosecond pulse pumping. Obviously, the co-
dominant mechanism for SC generation is the soliton dynamics herence of PCF b is better than that of PCF a. For PCF a,
[34]. There are several stages of the pulse evolutionary process. β2  −0.003 ps2 ∕m and γ  0.0039 m−1 W −1 . For PCF b,
At the first stage, the initial pulse is compressed and its spec- β2  −0.032 ps2 ∕m and γ  0.0021 m−1 W −1 . According
trum is strongly broadened, due to the cooperation of SPM and to the equation N 2  γP 0 T 20 ∕jβ2 j, where N is the soliton
anomalous dispersion. FWM effect in PCF a does not arise be-
cause of the short pulse width. Differences occur after this proc-
ess. For PCF a, as the dispersion is small, the pump pulse can
sustain a high peak pump power over a long fiber length, which

Fig. 6. Spectrum and coherence properties of SC when a pulse at a

Fig. 5. Evolution of the femtosecond pulse in frequency domain wavelength of 1550 nm and pulse width of 100 fs propagates in
and time domain in (a) and (b) PCF a and (c) and (d) PCF b. (a) PCF a and (b) PCF b.
 Research Article Vol. 55, No. 23 / August 10 2016 / Applied Optics 6359

number, P 0 is the peak pump power, and T 0 is the pulse 1. Picosecond Pulse Pumping
width, the calculated soliton number for PCF a is higher than Figure 8 demonstrates the evolution in frequency domain and
that of PCF b. As a result, the drastic nonlinear interaction time domain as a pulse with wavelength of 1950 nm, pulse
between DWs and solitons in PCF a reduces the coherence width of 1 ps, and pulse peak power of 100 kW propagates
of SC. in PCF c, PCF d, and PCF e.
For a 1550 nm pump pulse, the distance between pump The pulse broadens symmetrically in the initial stage of SC
wavelength and fiber ZDW plays an important part in SC evo- generation. For PCF c, the pump pulse forms solitons gradu-
lution. The effective mechanism to extend SC spectrum to the ally. The solitons shift to the long wavelength band due to the
long wavelength band is the soliton s elf-frequency shift. SRS. As β2 varies at different wavelengths, the solitons emit
Adopting a fiber that has a ZDW away from the pump pulse energy to maintain its shape. When the soliton spectrum covers
is a benefit for the energy distribution in the long wavelength the spectrum of DW and the group-velocity matching is sat-
band. If using a laser pulse with higher peak power and shorter isfied, DWs increased rapidly. Given that β3 is negative at the
duration, the long wavelength edge of SC can be extended pump wavelength, the frequency of the generated DWs down-
further. However, this brings a huge challenge for laser itself. shifts into the normal dispersion region in the long wavelength
band. In this case, the DW is emitted ahead of the soliton and
B. SC Generation with 1950 nm Pump Pulse has no chance of interacting with the soliton as it red-shifts
As the long wavelength edge of the generated SC with pump [38]. However, the DW emitted by one soliton can interact
pulse at a wavelength of 1550 nm is mostly confined within with other solitons. Under the influence of spectral recoil,
3000 nm, we consider SC generation with pump pulse at a which refers to the conservation of the overall energy of the
longer wavelength (1950 nm). photons, the soliton tends to blue-shift. The balance between
Three PCFs with different dispersion curves are designed in the red-shifted Raman soliton and the blue-shifted spectral
this section. They are named PCF c, PCF d, and PCF e. For recoil causes the cancellation of the SSFS and the SSFS stops
PCF c, Λ  1.68 μm, Φ1  1.34 μm, and Φ2  1.61 μm; before the fiber ZDW [39]. The spectral components in the
for PCF d, Λ  2.20 μm, Φ1  0.77 μm, and Φ2  anomalous-dispersion region also induced blue-shifted DW
1.76 μm; for PCF e, Λ  1.52 μm, Φ1  0.46 μm, and
Φ2  1.22 μm. The dispersion curves and confinement loss
curves (the insert figure) with a 1950 nm pump are depicted
in Fig. 7. The ZDW of PCF c is approximately 2197 nm. The
ZDW of PCF e is approximately 1985 nm. PCF d features
nearly all positive dispersion at the wavelength range over
1.1 μm. One fiber presents anomalous dispersion, one features
all normal dispersion, and one presents normal dispersion
around 1950 nm. We note that the confinement loss of fiber
d is the smallest owing to its largest Φ2 . Core diameter
d  2Λ − Φ1 is used to assign the geometric dimensions of
the PCFs to obtain an approximate assessment of the mode
area. For PCF c, PCF d, and PCF e, the effective core diameters
are 2.02 μm, 3.63 μm, and 2.58 μm, respectively. The non-
linear coefficient of PCF c is 19.87 m−1 · kW −1 , PCF d is
3.77 m−1 · kW −1 , and PCF e is 5.31 m−1 · kW −1 .

Fig. 8. Evolution of the picosecond pulse at a wavelength of

Fig. 7. Dispersion curves and confinement loss curves (the insert) 1950 nm in frequency domain and time domain in (a) and
of PCF c, PCF d, and PCF e. (b) PCF c, (c) and (d) PCF d, and (e) and (f) PCF e.
 6360 Vol. 55, No. 23 / August 10 2016 / Applied Optics Research Article

in the short wavelength range because of the first ZDW of

PCF c. The signal existing at the blue edge of the SC can
be traced back to four-wave mixing between the soliton and
the DW. The power of blue-shifted DWs is weak as more sol-
itons are concentrated around the pump pulse. Because of the
large soliton number for this pump condition, efficient reso-
nance energy exchange occurs between the solitons and the
DWs. The gap of the pump wavelength and the blue-shifted
DWs is more obvious than that of pump wavelength and red-
shifted DWs. The SC generated in PCF c shrinks obviously
with the increase of the propagation length after reaching
the widest band. This can be explained with the accumulation
of fiber loss. As the dispersion value for PCF d and PCF e
around the pump pulse is small, the sidebands of FWM effect
can be clearly seen in Figs. 8(c) and 8(d). The spectral broad-
ening of PCF d is the minimum as the dispersion value is pos-
itive over 1.1 μm. The asymmetric spectral shape is caused by
the high-order dispersion. The ZDW of PCF e is the nearest to
the pump pulse. However, the pump pulse located in the
normal dispersion region of PCF e. The pulse broadens slowly
at first. Once some spectral components show up in the
anomalous dispersion regime, broadband SC is generated
under the combination of the DW in the short wavelength
band and the soliton in the long wavelength band.
2. Femtosecond Pulse Pumping
The pulse width is shortened in this section. The SC evolutions
when a pump pulse with wavelength of 1950 nm, pulse width
of 100 fs, and pulse peak power of 100 kW propagates in
PCF c, PCF d, and PCF e are presented in Fig. 9.
The underlying mechanism is nearly the same as the analysis Fig. 9. Evolution of the femtosecond pulse in frequency domain
in the above section. The evolutionary trace for soliton, DW, and time domain in (a) and (b) PCF c, (c) and (d) PCF d, and
and nonlinear interaction is clear owing to the small soliton (e) and (f) PCF e.
number of femtosecond pulse. It is worth noting that the
gap between the blue-shifted DW and the pump pulse and
the gap between the red-shifted DW and the pump pulse
occurs. The solitons red-shift first, then blue-shift. The
are more obvious than that for the picosecond pulse in
interaction between solitons and other generated spectral
PCF c. The twisted evolution trace in Fig. 9(b) implies the in-
components destroys the coherence in this band.
teraction between dispersive waves and solitons, which was
The preferred mechanism for 1950 nm pump pulse to
caused by a soliton self-frequency shift and spectral recoil.
extend SC to the long wavelength band is the generation of
The propagation fiber length depicted in Fig. 9 is 7 cm also.
In this case, no SC shrinking is observed because the accumu-
lation of fiber loss is greatly reduced in such a short fiber. It is
possible to generate mid-IR SC in silica fiber by combining a
short fiber length and ultrashort pulse. The femtosecond pump
pulse contains much less energy compared to the picosecond
pulse at the same pump peak power, and fewer spectral
components are extended into the anomalous dispersion
regime. Therefore, SC generation in PCF e shrinks seriously.
SC generated in PCF c is the widest and PCF c with neg-
ative dispersion slope around the pump wavelength is a benefit
for the distribution of energy in the long wavelength band,
which matches with our goal. We calculated the coherence
of the SC generated with 1950 nm, 100 fs, 100 kW pump
pulse in PCF c, which is illustrated in Fig. 10. The SC spectrum
of a single shot is also shown as a dark line. The long wave-
length edge of SC spectrum is beyond 3000 nm. It is worth
noting that the coherence around the pump pulse is the lowest. Fig. 10. Spectrum and coherence properties of SC when a pulse at a
This is another confirmation that the spectral recoil effect wavelength of 1950 nm and pulse width of 100 fs propagates in PCF c.
 Research Article Vol. 55, No. 23 / August 10 2016 / Applied Optics 6361

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