Control of Long Pulse Pumped Supercontinuum Generation Using Weak Trigger Signal

Through numerical simulations, we study the effects of weak continuous wave (CW) or weak pulse triggering on the picosecond (ps) pulse pumped supercontinuum (SC) generation. To actively improve the spectral broadening and control both phase and intensity stability of the SC generation, we fix the frequency shift of the trigger pulse (with respect to the pump signal) with different durations and then tune the peak power. Detailed simulation results show that either a weak CW or weak pulse trigger can greatly improve the spectral broadening of SC spectrum generated by a ps pulse pump. Compared to weak CW trigger, a weak femtosecond (fs) pulse or ps pulse trigger can assist the generation of SC with much better coherence and SNR, but precise control of the time delay between the pump and trigger is required.