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Abstract

We explore the use of a highly nonlinear chalcogenide-silica waveguide for supercontinuum generation in the near infrared. The structure was fabricated by a pressure-assisted melt-filling of a silica capillary fiber (1.6 mu m bore diameter) with Ga4Ge21Sb10S65 glass. It was designed to have zero group velocity dispersion (for HE11 core mode) at 1550 nm. Pumping a 1 cm length with 60 fs pulses from an erbium-doped fiber laser results in the generation of octave-spanning supercontinuum light for pulse energies of only 60 pJ. Good agreement is obtained between the experimental results and theoretical predictions based on numerical solutions of the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The pressure-assisted melt-filling approach makes it possible to realize highly nonlinear devices with unusual combinations of materials. For example, we show numerically that a 1 cm long As2S3:silica step-index fiber with a core diameter of 1 mu m, pumped by 60 fs pulses at 1550 nm, would generate a broadband supercontinuum out to 4 mu m. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America