The mid-infrared spectral region is a great technical and scientific interest in numerous research field and applications. Among these studies, the generation of mid-infrared supercontinuum in fibers has attracted strong interest in the last decade, because of unique properties such as broad wavelength-coverage and brightness. In this work, a cascaded supercontinuum generated in a fluoride and a chalcogenide fiber spanning from 2 to 10 µm has been used for the detection of infrared signatures of organic compounds. Those results open a new way for remote sensing and spectroscopy in the mid-IR.
Compared to oxide based glasses, vitreous materials composed of chalcogen elements (S, Se, Te) show large transparency windows in the infrared. Indeed, chalcogenide fibers can be transparent from the visible up to 12-15 μm, depending on their compositions. The IR signatures of most molecules, including biomolecules, are located in this spectral domain, which allows in situ, non-invasive and real-time detection of gaz or organics molecules. Indeed, chalcogenide glasses can present a high non-linear coefficient (n2), 100 to 1000 times larger than for silica glass, depending on the composition. An original way to obtain fibers is to design microstructured optical fibers (MOFs). These fibers present unique optical properties thanks to the high degree of freedom in the design of their geometrical structure. Various chalcogenide MOFs operating in the mid-IR range have been elaborated in order to associate the high nonlinear properties of these glasses and the original MOF properties. Different glass compositions and different designs have been achieved depending on the intended application. Indeed, chalcogenide MOFs might lead to new devices with unique optical properties in the Mid-IR domain like multimode or endlessly single mode transmission of light, small or large mode area fibers, non-linear properties for wavelength conversion or generation of supercontinuum sources. In this work, a supercontinuum from 2 to 10 μm, with an average power of 15mW, has been obtained in a chalcogenide MOF by pumping with a supercontinuum generated in a fluoride fiber.
We report on a 3 W Mid-IR supercontinuum extended up to 4.6 μm based on an all-PM thulium doped fiber gainswitched laser seeding an InF3 fiber. This innovative fiber presents a specific design that increases non-linear effects and shows very weak background losses. Thanks to the versatility of our gain-switched laser, all the pulse parameters have been widely optimized to generate a supercontinuum emission with the highest average power and the largest spectrum.
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