Blue-Extended Sub-Nanosecond Supercontinuum Generation in Simply Designed Nonlinear Microstructured Optical Fibers

We report experimentally observed extreme blue-enhanced supercontinuum (SC) generation down to 372 nm wavelength in simply designed and easily fabricated nonlinear microstructured optical fibers (MOFs). Three different MOFs of various core sizes and dispersion profiles are fabricated in order to optimize the parameters for achieving deeper blue components by group-index matching. The physical mechanism involved in the generation of extreme blue component is explained along with other nonlinear processes participating in the spectral broadening. We also explore the extent of applicability of the group-index matching technique for obtaining blue-enhanced SC and finally optimize the location of the zero dispersion wavelength (ZDW) with respect to the pump wavelength to achieve the maximum blue shift.