Supercontinuum Generation with Output Power of 1.7W Pumped by a Picosecond Laser Pulse

By using a photonic crystal fiber, a supercontinuum source with output power up to 1.7 W, pumped by a passively mode-locked diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 picosecond laser is obtained. A spectral width of the supercontinuum is 1700 nm (500-2200 nm) with the 5 dB spectral width approximately 1000 nm (1200-2200 nm). This high power wide band supercontinuum source meets the demand of many applications such as optical coherence tomography, frequency metrology and wavelength-division-multiplexing systems. The evolution of the supercontinuum with the increasing pump power is presented and analyzed.