Combinatorial Study of Supercontinuum Generation Dynamics in Photonic Crystal Fibers Pumped by Ultrafast Fiber Lasers

We numerically study the dynamics of supercontinuum generation (SCG) for a variety of possible combinations of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) and ultrafast fiber laser pulses that the current technologies offer. Three types of PCFs typically used in SCG and four representative types of ultrafast fiber laser pulses are considered for this combinatorial study. We numerically model and qualitatively discuss the nonlinear evolution of the pulses for their whole 12 combinatorial cases. We also quantitatively analyze their output spectra and organize a performance chart for them in terms of spectral bandwidth, flatness, and degree of spectral coherence. Finally, we suggest the most viable combinations among the given PCFs and ultrafast fiber laser pulses in order for generating a target supercontinuum spectrum for various specific cases.