Supercontinuum Generation in Non-Silica Fibers

Dear Colleagues,

During the past twenty years, supercontinuum generation (SCG) has been one of the most emerging fields in nonlinear optics. It was first observed around 1970 in gaseous and solid nonlinear systems, but its recent success, which has led the development of commercial SCG sources, was based on silica fibers and coincided in the late 1990s with the advent of silica photonic crystal fibers (PCFs), which offered a very flexible control in chromatic dispersion and nonlinearity. Numerous SC laser sources based on PCFs, tapered microfibers, and waveguides have been developed since then, covering the whole visible and near infrared (NIR) spectral region. Silica losses beyond the 2 μm wavelength affect the efficiency of SCG in the mid infrared (MIR) and far infrared (FIR) regions of the spectrum. In particular, MIR (2–5 μm) is considered to be very important, since it covers the fundamental absorption bands of most of the molecules. This very distinctive molecular fingerprint may lead to important applications in chemical and biomedical sciences, the environment, and security. There are several materials that are transparent in the MIR region, including soft glasses (heavy metal oxides, fluorides, chalcogenides, tellurites, germania), semiconductors (silicon-on-insulator), and hybrid structures. The nonlinearity in most of these materials is higher than silica and the ability to control the waveguide dispersion is crucial for efficient SCG. In technological terms, all the material processes involved, such as fiber or waveguide fabrication and post-processing (tapering), are more demanding and challenging than in silica.

The aim of this Special Issue entitled “Supercontinuum Generation in Non-Silica Fibers and Waveguides” is to cover recent advances in the design and development fibers and waveguides for SCG using non-silica materials. Emphasis will be given to material design/fabrication, waveguide design/fabrication, post-processing, and dispersion/nonlinearity tailoring. Both original articles and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Georgios Kakarantzas
Guest Editor

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• chalcogenide
• fluoride
• tellurite
• germania
• heavy metal oxide glasses
• non-oxide glasses
• ZBLAN glass
• nonlinear materials
• supercontinuum generation
• fiber and waveguide dispersion tailoring
• fiber and waveguide post-processing
• photonic crystal fibers
• tapered fibers for nonlinear applications
• hybrid optical fibers and waveguides