White light supercontinuum generation in a Y-shaped microstructured tapered fiber pumped at 1064 nm

Abstract

We report the generation of supercontinuum in a Ge-doped Y-shape tapered fiber pumped at 1064 nm in the ns pump regime. The taper was designed to have long taper transitions and a taper waist with a core diameter of 0.9 mum. The large air-filling fraction and diameter of the air-hole microstructure reduces the confinement loss at long wavelengths so, enabling the extension of the spectrum to longer wavelengths. Along the taper transition the zero-dispersion wavelength decreases as the diameter of the taper becomes smaller. The spectral components generated along the taper transition pump the taper waist, enhancing the generation of short wavelengths. A flat spectrum spanning from 420 nm to 1850 nm is reported.