Coherent mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in tapered suspended-core As<sub>39</sub>Se<sub>61</sub> fibers pumped by a few-optical-cycle Cr:ZnSe laser
Stanislav O. Leonov, Yuchen Wang, V.S. Shiryaev, Г. Е. Снопатин, Б.С. Степанов, В. Г. Плотниченко, Edoardo Vicentini, Alessio Gambetta, Nicola Coluccelli, C. Svelto, P. Laporta, G. Galzerano
Abstract
We report on efficient supercontinuum generation in tapered suspended-core <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">A</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">s</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>39</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">S</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">e</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>61</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> fibers pumped by a femtosecond mode-locked Cr:ZnSe laser. The supercontinuum spectrum spans the mid-infrared spectral region from 1.4 to 4.2 µm, and its spectral coherence is proved by heterodyning with a single-frequency narrow-linewidth Er-fiber laser at 1.55 µm, measuring a beat note with 27-dB signal-to-noise ratio in a resolution bandwidth of 100 kHz. The intensity stability of the supercontinuum radiation is also characterized by relative intensity noise measurements.