Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a suspended core chalcogenide fiber

The mid-infrared spectral region is of great interest because virtually all organic compounds display distinctive spectral fingerprints herein that reveal chemical information about them [1], and the mid-infrared region is therefore of key importance to many applications, including food quality control [2], gas sensing [3] and medical diagnostics [4] . We have used a low-loss suspended core As 38 Se 62 fiber with core diameter of 4.5 μ m and a zero - dispersion wavelength of 3.5 μ m to generate mid-infrared supercontinuum by pumping with an optical parametric amplifier delivering 320 fs pulses with a peak power of ~5.5 kW at a repetition rate of 21 MHz at different wavelengths from 3.3 to 4.7 μ m . By pumping at 4.4 μ m with a peak power of 5.2 kW coupled to the fiber a supercontinuum spanning from 1.7 to 7.5 μ m with an average output power of 15.6 mW was obtained. Figure 1 shows the results obtained when pumping at to 3.5 μ m . We have recently demonstrated a record-breaking supercontinuum spanning from 1. 4-13.3 μ m in a step - index chalcogenide fiber [5]. The results in this presentation are however to our knowledge the first reported supercontinuum generated beyond 6 μm in a chalcogenide microstructured optical fiber