Mid-IR supercontinuum pumped by femtosecond pulses from thulium doped all-fiber amplifier

Opt Express. 2016 Jun 27;24(13):13939-45. doi: 10.1364/OE.24.013939.

Abstract

We present a mid-infrared (mid-IR) supercontinuum (SC) light source pumped by femtosecond pulses from a thulium doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) at 2 μm. An octave-spanning spectrum from 1.1 to 3.7 μm with an average power of 253 mW has been obtained from a single mode ZBLAN fiber. Spectral flatness of 10 dB over a 1390 nm range has been obtained in the mid-IR region from 1940 - 3330 nm. It is resulted from the enhanced self phase modulation process in femtosecond regime. The all-fiber configuration makes such broadband coherent source a compact candidate for various applications.