Octave-spanning coherent supercontinuum generation in a silicon nitride waveguide

Opt Lett. 2015 Nov 1;40(21):5117-20. doi: 10.1364/OL.40.005117.

Abstract

We demonstrate the generation of a supercontinuum spanning more than 1.4 octaves in a silicon nitride waveguide using sub-100-fs pulses at 1 μm generated by either a 53-MHz, diode-pumped ytterbium (Yb) fiber laser or a 1-GHz, Yb:CaAlGdO(4) (Yb:CALGO) laser. Our numerical simulations show that the broadband supercontinuum is fully coherent, and a spectral interference measurement is used to verify that the supercontinuum generated with the Yb:CALGO laser possesses a high degree of coherence over the majority of its spectral bandwidth. This coherent spectrum may be utilized for optical coherence tomography, spectroscopy, and frequency metrology.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Lasers, Solid-State*
  • Light
  • Refractometry / instrumentation*
  • Scattering, Radiation*
  • Silicon Compounds / chemistry*
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance / instrumentation*

Substances

  • Silicon Compounds
  • silicon nitride