Abstract

Supercontinuum (SC) generation has been studied extensively in various optical fibers. During the last 15 years, the interest has significantly shifted toward the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral region where molecules display fundamental vibration absorptions [3]. Here we propose an alternative approach to facilitate future developments of fiber SC sources reaching the 15-20 µm waveband, by simply post-processing of a chalcogenide rod-type fiber (i.e., a single-index fiber). We then demonstrate its efficiency by reporting on mid-IR SC generation spanning from 1.7 to 16 µm with femtosecond pulse pumping of a 5-cm-long tapered Ge-Se-Te rod.

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