Compressible Octave Spanning Supercontinuum Generation by Two-Pulse Collisions

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel method for supercontinuum generation in an optical fiber based on two-color pumping with a delay and a group velocity matching. The scheme relies on the enhanced cross-phase-modulation at an intensity induced refractive index barrier between a dispersive wave and a soliton. The generation mechanism neither incorporates soliton fission nor a modulation instability and therefore exhibits extraordinary coherence properties, enabling the temporal compression of octave bandwidth into a short pulse. Moreover, the properties of the supercontinuum are adjustable over a wide range in the frequency domain by suitable choice of the dispersive wave.