Arnaud Mussot

Spectral broadening of a partially coherent CW laser beam in single-mode optical fibers

The nonlinear propagation of a partially coherent continuous-wave laser beam in single-mode optical fibers is investigated both theoretically and experimentally, with a special attention to the zero-dispersion wavelength region where modulation instability is expected. Broadband asymmetric spectral broadening is reported experimentally and found in fairly good agreement with a numerical Schrödinger simulation including a phase-diffusion model for the partially coherent beam. This model shows in addition that the underlying spectral broadening mechanism relies not only on modulation instability but also on the generation of high-order soliton-like pulses and dispersive waves. The coherence degradation which results from these ultrafast phenomena is confirmed by autocorrelation measurement.

Real-time full bandwidth measurement of spectral noise in supercontinuum generation

The ability to measure real-time fluctuations of ultrashort pulses propagating in optical fiber has provided significant insights into fundamental dynamical effects such as modulation instability and the formation of frequency-shifting rogue wave solitons. We report here a detailed study of real-time fluctuations across the full bandwidth of a fiber supercontinuum which directly reveals the significant variation in measured noise statistics across the spectrum, and which allows us to study correlations between widely separated spectral components. For two different propagation distances corresponding to the onset phase of spectral broadening and the fully-developed supercontinuum, we measure real time noise across the supercontinuum bandwidth, and we quantify the supercontinuum noise using statistical higher-order moments and a frequency-dependent intensity correlation map. We identify correlated spectral regions within the supercontinuum associated with simultaneous sideband generation, as well as signatures of pump depletion and soliton-like pump dynamics. Experimental results are in excellent agreement with simulations.

Observation of extreme temporal events in CW-pumped supercontinuum

We study experimentally and numerically the temporal features of supercontinuum generated with a continuous-wave ytterbium-doped fiber laser. We show that the temporal output of the supercontinuum is characterized by strong and brief power fluctuations, i.e. so-called optical rogue waves. We demonstrate numerically that these rare and strong events that appear and disappear from nowhere result from solitonic collisions.

Generation of a broadband single-mode supercontinuum in a conventional dispersion-shifted fiber by use of a subnanosecond microchip laser

We report the experimental generation, simply by use of a subnanosecond microchip laser at 532 nm and a conventional dispersion-shifted fiber, of a supercontinuum that spans more than 1100 nm. We show by detailed spectral analysis that this supercontinuum originates from a preliminary four-wave mixing process with multimode phase matching and subsequent double-cascade stimulated Raman scattering and is transversely single mode as a result of Raman-induced mode competition. This technique is believed to be the simplest configuration that allows one to generate a stable supercontinuum.

Impact of pump phase modulation on the gain of fiber optical parametric amplifier

In practice, fiber optical parametric amplifiers are generally driven by a phase-modulated pump wave to avoid stimulated Brillouin back-scattering. We show both analytically and numerically that the phase modulation of the pump can induce strong parametric gain modulation and that this detrimental effect depends both on the rise-fall time of the phase modulator and on the fiber dispersion slope.

Tailoring CW supercontinuum generation in microstructured fibers with two-zero dispersion wavelengths

We theoretically study broadband supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibers exhibiting two zero dispersion wavelengths and under continuous-wave pumping. We show that when the pump wavelength is located in between the zero-dispersion wavelengths, a wide and uniform spectral broadening is achieved through modulation instability, generation of both blue-shifted and red-shifted dispersive waves and subsequently through soliton self-frequency shift. This supercontinuum is therefore bounded by these two dispersive waves which allow the control of its bandwidth by a suitable tuning of the fiber dispersion. As a relevant example, we predict that broadband (1050-1600 nm) continuous-wave light can be generated in short lengths of microstructured fibers pumped by use of a 10-W Ytterbium fiber laser.

Visible cw-pumped supercontinuum

We report the experimental demonstration of a visible supercontinuum in the cw pumping regime. A 20 W ytterbium fiber laser at 1.06 microm is used to pump a photonic crystal fiber whose zero-dispersion wavelength decreases along the fiber length. Visible wavelengths are generated in the fundamental mode via trapping of dispersive waves by redshifted solitons.

White-light cw-pumped supercontinuum generation in highly GeO 2 -doped-core photonic crystal fibers

GeO(2)-doped-core photonic crystal fibers show greatly enhanced Kerr and Raman responses with respect to pure silica without any significant modification of the group-velocity dispersion curve. We show that such fibers allow a significant improvement of cw-pumped supercontinuum generation. We report for the first time to our knowledge the generation of a white-light cw-pumped supercontinuum spanning from 470 nm to more than 1750 nm.

Broadband and flat parametric amplifiers with a multisection dispersion-tailored nonlinear fiber arrangement

We describe a simple scheme to allow for the achievement of flat gain over ultrabroad bands with a single-pump fiber-optic parametric amplifier operating in the zero-dispersion wavelength region. The proposed method, based on a multisection dispersion-tailored in-line nonlinear fiber arrangement, is demonstrated by both modulational instability theory and numerical simulations of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The results show that the design can be adjusted to generate gain bands that exceed either 100 nm with a ripple of less than 0.2 dB and for a pump power of only 500 mW, or even 200 nm when a pump power of 5 W is used. In addition, the robustness of this gain-flattening technique has been numerically checked against random fluctuations of the zero-dispersion wavelength in each of the fiber sections.

Experimental demonstration of modulation instability in an optical fiber with a periodic dispersion landscape

We report the experimental demonstration of a modulation instability (MI) process assisted by a periodic dispersion modulation in an optical fiber. We observe the spontaneous growth of more than 10 pairs of MI sidebands spanning over more than 10 THz thanks to a quasi-phase-matched process.