Supercontinuum generation in a photonic crystal fibre

Nearly 1000-nm broad continuum from 390 nm to 1370 nm is generated in a 2-m long photonic crystal fibre. The maximum total power of supercontinuum is measured to be 60 mW with the pumping power of 800 mW output from a 200-fs Ti:sapphire laser. The evolution of the pumping light into supercontinuum is experimentally studied in detail. It is found that the mechanism for supercontinuum generation has direct relations with Raman effect and soliton effect, and the four-wave mixing plays an important role in the last phase of the supercontinuum generation.