Femtosecond pulse source based on soliton filtering from a supercontinuum generated in a microstructured fiber

Abstract

In this article we report the implementation of a tunable source of ultrashort pulses, based on the generation of a supercontinuum in a photonic crystal fiber, using sub-100 fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator, and filtering the soliton with the longest wavelength out of the continuum. Using a zero dispersion filtering system we were able to get a pulse duration close to the minimum possible for the soliton. The pulses obtained were continuously tunable in the 850-1100 nm range, and tuning was achieved by input pulse energy variation. We present a complete characterization of the filtered pulses and show that the experimental results have a qualitative agreement with theory.