Development of suspended core soft glass fibers for far-detuned parametric conversion

Light sources utilizing χ(2) parametric conversion combine high brightness with attractive operation wavelengths in the near and mid-infrared. In optical fibers, it is possible to use χ(3) degenerate four-wave mixing in order to obtain signal-to-idler frequency detuning of over 100 THz. We report on a test series of nonlinear soft glass suspended core fibers intended for parametric conversion of 1000-1100 nm signal wavelengths available from an array of mature lasers into the near-to-mid-infrared range of 2700-3500 nm under pumping with an erbium sub-picosecond laser system. The presented discussion includes modelling of the fiber properties, details of their physical development and characterization, and experimental tests of parametric conversion.