Compact 30 W level 2–3 μm supercontinuum source based on Germania-core fiber

A high-power supercontinuum (SC) laser source with 10 dB spectral range of 1.95-3 pm is demonstrated based on a piece of germania-core fiber (GCF). The pump source is a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system composed of a 1.96 pm mode-locked fiber laser and a two-stage thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) chain. The maximum output power of the SC source is up to 30.1 W, which is, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the highest output power level ever reported for a GCF based SC source as well as a 2-3 pm SC laser source.