Watt-level, all-fiber supercontinuum source based on telecom-grade fiber components

Abstract

Supercontinuum (SC) generation in a standard telecom fiber using 1 ns pulses of a 1,550-nm DFB laser amplified in a cascade of erbium and erbium/ytterbium fiber amplifiers is reported. The SC source operated at 200 kHz repetition rate and delivered up to 2 W of average output power in the band of 1,300-2,500 nm with a diffraction limited beam. For the wavelengths over 1,650 nm, the output power of 1.1 Wwas recorded. The spectrum was very flat with the flatness of \5 dB in the wavelength interval of 1.6-2.18 lm. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first report on W-level SC generation obtained only in a standard single-mode fiber (SMF-28) with almost the entire spectrum in the eye-safe spectral region (k[1.4 lm) permitted by silicate glass transparency. © The Author(s) 2012.