Abstract

Ultrashort pulse propagation in photonic crystal fibre provides an excellent insight into distinctive nonlinear optical effects. The dispersive properties of such a fibre can be readily tailored through the microstructured cladding and in turn this cladding affords a very high degree of confinement to the propagating light.¹ The high intensity in the core means that nonlinear effects can be observed at lower pulse energies and shorter fibre lengths than is possible with conventional fibre and so a variety of spectral features can be induced. These effects typically range from supercontinuum generation, for both picosecond and femtosecond laser pulses," to soliton-like effects that offer broad tunability.

© 2002 Optical Society of America