Supercontinuum pulse source with enhanced spectrum

Abstract

A source of optical supercontinuum radiation comprises a microstructured optical fibre and a pump laser adapted to generate lasing radiation at a pump wavelength, the microstructured optical fibre comprising a core region and a cladding region which surrounds the core region; the core of the microstructured fibre comprising a first refractive index and the cladding region comprising an effective refractive index such that the Δ-value is greater than 0.03; the fibre comprising a zero dispersion wavelength within ±200 nm of said pump wavelength; wherein the fibre can support a plurality of modes at said pump wavelength; and wherein the pump laser is adapted to launch said lasing radiation at said pump wavelength into said core region of said microstructured optical fibre to excite the fundamental mode of the fibre. In one practice, the source of optical supercontinuum radiation does not include a pump laser arranged to pump said microstructured optical fibre at a wavelength different from said pump wavelength.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.