Generating tunable optical pulses over the ultrabroad range of 1.6-2.5 µm in GeO2-doped silica fibers with an Er:fiber laser source.

ABSTRACT

We report generation of femtosecond optical pulses tunable in the 1.6-2.5 µm range using GeO2-doped core silica-cladding fibers. Optical solitons with a duration of 80-160 fs have been measured by the FROG technique in the 2-2.3 µm range. To the best of our knowledge, these are the longest wavelength temporally characterized solitons generated in silica-based fibers. We have also demonstrated more than octave-spanning femtosecond supercontinuum generation in the 1.0-2.6 µm range.