Compression of polarized supercontinuum pulses generated in birefringent all normal-dispersion photonic crystal fiber
AssigneeThe Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
InventorsHaohua Tu, Stephen A. Boppart
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for generating ultrashort optical pulses. Polarized pulses of a near-infrared source are launched substantially along a principle axis of a birefringent photonic crystal fiber characterized by normal dispersion at all wavelengths of transmission of the photonic crystal fiber. Supercontinuum pulses are generated from the photonic crystal fiber and compressed to form compressed pulses. Highly polarized supercontinuum pulses provide for transform-limited compressed pulse durations.
Claims14
A method for generating ultrashort optical pulses, the method comprising:
- a. coupling polarized pulses of a near-infrared source, each polarized pulse characterized by a pulsewidth, into a birefringent photonic crystal fiber characterized by normal dispersion at all wavelengths of transmission of the photonic crystal fiber, substantially along a principle axis of the photonic crystal fiber;
- b. generating supercontinuum pulses from the photonic crystal fiber;
- and
- c. compressing the supercontinuum pulses to form a plurality of compressed pulses, each compressed pulse characterized by a full-width-half-maximum pulsewidth.
An apparatus for generating ultrashort optical pulses, the apparatus comprising:
- a. a near-infrared source of polarized pulses characterized by a pulsewidth shorter than 2 ps and an energy per pulse exceeding 2 nJ;
- b. a photonic crystal fiber characterized by a birefringence of greater than 1×10−5, and by normal dispersion at all wavelengths of transmission of the photonic crystal fiber;
- and
- c. a pulse compressor for compressing each supercontinuum pulse exiting the photonic crystal fiber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.