Highly stable, monolithic, single-mode mid-infrared supercontinuum source based on low-loss fusion spliced silica and fluoride fibers

作者：Yin, Ke; Zhang, Bin; Yao, Jinmei; Yang, Linyong; Chen, Shengping; Hou, Jing^*

来源：Optics Letters, 2016, 41(5): 946-949.

DOI：10.1364/OL.41.000946

• Continuous operation
• Fluoride fibers
• Fundamental modes
• Gaussian beam profile
• Mid-infrared supercontinuum
• Root Mean Square
• Spectral bandwidth
• Splicing joints

A 0.8 to 4.5 mu m highly stable all-fiber spliced mid-infrared supercontinuum (SC) source was presented. The joint between the single-mode (SM) pump silica fiber and the ZBLAN fiber (ZrF4 - BaF2 - LaF3 - AlF3 - NaF, a type of fluoride fiber) was fusion spliced, which greatly improved the SC's stability. The low-loss splicing was guaranteed by the similar mode field areas of the fundamental mode LP01 of the silica and ZBLAN fibers. At the splicing joint the ZBLAN fiber enveloped the silica fiber, thus increasing the robustness of the splice. A low splicing loss of less than 0.1 dB was calculated, which ensured that the whole SC source was very reliable. The SC had a maximal average power of 550.8 mW with a 1.5 dB spectral bandwidth ranging from 2642 to 4065 nm. In particular, the SC power for lambda > 3.8 mu m was measured to be 116.1 mW with a power ratio of similar to 21.1% of the total SC power. Perfect Gaussian beam profiles of the SC source demonstrated its SM operation. Over 12 h of continuous operation of this SC source showed its outstanding power stability with a root mean square variation of 0.59%, which also demonstrated the high quality of the fusion spliced joint.

• 出版日期2016-3-1
• 单位中国人民解放军国防科学技术大学