All-Fiber Supercontinuum Source Pumped by Noise-Like Pulse Mode Locked Laser

We demonstrate flat supercontinuum generation in a piece of highly nonlinear fiber pumped with a stable noise-like pulse mode-locked fiber laser. The compact all-fiber laser realizes mode locking based on a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror and emits noise-like mode-locked pulse with high peak power and high average power. The output pulse has a 3-dB bandwidth of ~35.8 nm with the central wavelength of ~1581 nm. Pumping a 102-m highly nonlinear fiber with the noise-like pulse mode-locked fiber laser directly, a flat and weak residual-pump supercontinuum spanning from ~1370 to ~2200 nm is generated. The spectrum within 1865 to 2200 nm contains more than 45% of the whole energy of the supercontinuum.