5 W supercontinuum based on an ultrafast fiber system

The generation of ultrabroadband spectra using air-silica microstructured fibers (ASMF) is currently subject of intense research. We report on the realisation of such a supercontinuum ranging from <500nm to >1800nm with an average power as high as 5 W using a parabolic fiber amplifier as a pump source for the ASMF. To get an insight into the physical mechanism of continuum generation we numerically solved the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger including gain using an adaptive split-step algorithm. The low power result with the experimental supercontinuum spectra confirming the theory of perturbated higher order solitons.