Pulsed and continuous-wave supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fibers

Supercontinuum generation in a highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fiber at 1550 nm is discussed. Spectrum generation under both pulsed and continuous-wave conditions is considered. With a few meters of highly nonlinear, dispersion-shifted fiber and a femtosecond erbium fiber laser, an octave-spanning supercontinuum is demonstrated. Kilometer lengths of nonlinear fiber pumped by a continuous-wave Raman fiber laser are shown to generate a continuum with a bandwidth greater than 247 nm. A nonlinear Schrödinger-equation model is used to investigate the effect of varying the dispersion on the pulsed continuum and noise effects in the continuous-wave continuum.

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