Numerical Comparative Study of Supercontinuum Generation in Photonic Crystal Fibers Using Noise-Like Pulses and Ultrashort Pulses

We study numerically supercontinuum generation in four different 10 cm long photonic crystal fibers at 800 and ~1060 nm, whose parameters are found in the literature, comparing the performance of noise-like pulses (NLPs) and ultrashort pulses (USPs) as the pump. Averaging hundreds of spectra produced by NLPs from two passively mode-locked fiber lasers (thulium and ytterbium), smooth and uniform curves similar to experimental ones were achieved, requiring low or moderate input peak powers. In contrast, spectra exhibiting poor flatness with strong fluctuations up to 24 dB were obtained when using USPs as the pump.