Calculation of the expected output spectrum for a mid-infrared supercontinuum source based on As2S3 chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers

We computationally investigate supercontinuum generation in an As2S3 solid core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a hexagonal cladding of air holes. With a goal of obtaining a supercontinuum output spectrum that can predict what might be seen in an experiment, we investigate the spectral and statistical behavior of a mid-infrared supercontinuum source using a large ensemble average of 106 realizations, in which the input pulse duration and energy vary. The output spectrum is sensitive to small changes (0.1%) in these pulse parameters. We show that the spectrum can be divided into three regions with distinct characteristics: a short-wavelength region with high correlation, a middle-wavelength region with minimal correlation, and a long-wavelength region where the behavior is dominated by a few rare large-bandwidth events. We show that statistically significant fluctuations exist in the experimentally expected output spectrum and that we can reproduce an excellent match to that spectrum with a converged shape and bandwidth using 5000 realizations. © 2014 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (060.2390) Fiber optics, infrared; (320.6629) Supercontinuum generation. References and links 1. H. Kano and H. O. Hamaguchi, “Vibrationally resonant imaging of a single living cell by supercontinuum-based multiplex coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microspectroscopy,” Opt. Express 13(4), 1322–1327 (2005). 2. A. Schliesser, N. Picque, and T. Hänsch, “Mid-infrared frequency combs,” Nat. Photonics 6(7), 440–449 (2012). 3. C. S. Colley, J. C. Hebden, D. T. Delpy, A. D. Cambrey, R. A. Brown, E. A. Zibik, W. H. Ng, L. R. Wilson, and J. W. Cockburn, “Mid-infrared optical coherence tomography,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 78(12), 123108 (2007). 4. J. S. Sanghera, L. B. Shaw, and I. D. Aggarwal, “Chalcogenide glass-fiber-based mid-IR sources and applications,” IEEE J. of Sel. Topics Quantum Electron. 15, 114–119, (2009). 5. D. R. Solli, C. Ropers, P. Koonath, and B. Jalali, “Optical rogue waves,” Nature 450, 1054–1057 (2007). 6. B. Wetzel, K. J. Blow, S. K. Turitsyn, G. Millot, L. Larger, and J. M. Dudley, “Random walks and random numbers from supercontinuum generation,” Opt. Express 20, 11143–11152 (2012). 7. B. Wetzel, A. Stefani, L. Larger, P. A. Lacourt, J. M. Merolla, T. Sylvestre, A. Kudlinski, A. Mussot, G. Genty, F. Dias, J. M. Dudley, “Real-time full bandwidth measurement of spectral noise in supercontinuum generation,” Sci. Rep. 2, 882 (2012). #213506 $15.00 USD Received 9 Jun 2014; revised 16 Jul 2014; accepted 9 Aug 2014; published 5 Sep 2014 (C) 2014 OSA 8 September 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 18 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.022220 | OPTICS EXPRESS 22220 8. R. J. Weiblen, A. Docherty, J. Hu, and C. R. Menyuk, “Calculation of the expected bandwidth for a mid-infrared supercontinuum source based on As2S3 chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers,” Opt. Express 18, 26666–26674 (2010). 9. U. Møller, S. T. Sørensen, C. Jakobsen, J. Johansen, P. M. Moselund, C. L. Thomsen, and O. Bang, “Power dependence of supercontinuum noise in uniform and tapered PCFs,” Opt. Express 20, 2851–2857 (2012). 10. J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, “Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 78, 1135–1184 (2006). 11. R. J. Weiblen, J. Hu, C. R. Menyuk, L. B. Shaw, J. S. Sanghera, and I. D. Aggarwal, “Maximizing the supercontinuum bandwidth in As2S3 chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers,” Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2010), paper CTuX7. 12. J. Hu, C. R. Menyuk, L. B. Shaw, J. S. Sanghera, and I. D. Aggarwal, “Maximizing the bandwidth of supercontinuum generation in As2Se3 chalcogenide fibers,” Opt. Express 18, 6722–6739 (2010). 13. J. Dudley and S. Coen, “Coherence properties of supercontinuum spectra generated in photonic crystal and tapered optical fibers,” Opt. Lett. 27, 1180–1182 (2002).