Characterization and adaptive control of continuum from microstructured fibers

Summary form only given. Recent theoretical results have indicated that the spectral continuum is sensitive to third order dispersion in microstructured fibers. In particular, the position of the blue edge of the continuum is determined by the amount of residual third order dispersion (TOD) in the fiber. For a given propagation length, the TOD is fixed. However, the phase of the input pulse also plays an important role in nonlinear pulse propagation. The pulse envelope shape, and therefore the effective potential in the NLSE, is determined by the input phase. Moreover, fiber TOD can be compensated by the pulse /spl Phi//sup (3)/(/spl omega/). Here, we investigate the spectral character of the continuum as a function of /spl Phi//sup (2)/(/spl omega/) and /spl Phi//sup (3)/(/spl omega/), the second and third order phase of the input pulse. In addition, we use adaptive pulse shaping to tailor the continuum emerging from the fiber.