Two-octave spectral broadening of subnanojoule Cr:forsterite femtosecond laser pulses in tapered fibers

Abstract.Spectral broadening of femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser pulses is enhanced due to the use of tapered fibers. Supercontinuum generation with unamplified subnanojoule femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser pulses is observed for the first time. With 40-fs 0.6-nJ pulses of 1.25-μm Cr:forsterite laser radiation coupled into a tapered fiber having a taper waist diameter of about 2 μm and a taper waist length of 90 mm, we observed the spectra spanning more than two octaves at the output of the fiber in the regime of anomalous group-velocity dispersion. This result opens the way for the creation of compact femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser plus tapered fiber systems for optical metrology and biomedical applications.