Supercontinuum Generation in Optical Fibers

by J. M. Dudley, J. R. Taylor

Overview

The optical fiber based supercontinuum source has recently become a significant scientific and commercial success, with applications ranging from frequency comb production to advanced medical imaging. This one-of-a-kind book explains the theory of fiber supercontinuum broadening, describes the diverse operational regimes and indicates principal areas of applications, making it a very important guide for researchers and graduate students. With contributions from major figures and groups who have pioneered research in this field, the book describes the historical development of the subject, provides a background to the associated nonlinear optical processes, treats the generation mechanisms from continuous wave to femtosecond pulse pump regimes and highlights the diverse applications. A full discussion of numerical methods and comprehensive computer code are also provided, enabling readers to confidently predict and model supercontinuum generation characteristics under realistic conditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521514804
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2010
Pages:	418
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Dudley is a Professor in the Département d'Optique P. M. Duffieux at the Université de Franche-Comté and CNRS research institute FEMTO-ST in Besançon, France. His research has spanned both experimental and theoretical nonlinear optics and photonics.

Roy Taylor is a Professor in the Physics Department at Imperial College London. He has made contributions in various aspects of laser research, photonics, ultrafast processes, optical fibers and nonlinear optics.

Table of Contents

List of contributors vii

Preface xi

1 Introduction and history J. R. Taylor 1

2 Supercontinuum generation in microstructure fibers - a historical note J. K. Ranka 30

3 Nonlinear fibre optics overview J. C. Travers M. H. Frosz J. M. Dudley 32

4 Fibre supercontinuum generation overview J. M. Dudley G. Genty S. Coen 52

5 Silica fibres for supercontinuum generation J. C. Knight W. J. Wadsworth 62

6 Supercontinuum generation and nonlinearity in soft glass fibres Jonathan H. V. Price David J. Richardson 82

7 Increasing the blue-shift of a picosecond pumped supercontinuum M. H. Frosz P. M. Moselund P. D. Rasmussen C. L. Thomsen O. Bang 119

8 Continuous wave supercontinuum generation J. C. Travers 142

9 Theory of supercontinuum and interaction of solitons with dispersive waves D. V. Skryabin A. V. Gorbach 178

10 Interaction of four-wave mixing and stimulated Raman scattering in optical fibers S. Coen S. G. Murdoch F. Vanholsbeeck 199

11 Nonlinear optics in emerging waveguides: revised fundamentals and implications S. Afshar V. M. Turner T M. Monro 226

12 Supercontinuum generation in dispersion-varying fibers G. Genty 285

13 Supercontinuum generation in chalcogenide glass waveguides Dong-Il Yeom M. R. E. Lamont B. Luther Davies B. J. Eggleton 306

14 Supercontinuum generation for carrier-envelope phase stabilization of mode-locked lasers S. T. Cundiff 334

15 Biophotonics applications of supercontinuum generation C. Dunsby P. M. W. French 349

16 Fiber sources of tailored supercontinuum in nonlinear microspectroscopy and imaging A. M. Zheltikov 373

Index 399