Threshold energies for filamentation and spectral characteristics of supercontinuum generation in THEOS-based nanocomposite organosilicon media

We have experimentally determined the threshold energy for filamentation in THEOS-based hybrid silicate nanocomposite materials containing polysaccharides and hyperbranched polyglycidols and the conversion efficiency from the femtosecond Ti : sapphire laser output to a supercontinuum in the range . The addition of sodium hyaluronate (polysaccharide) and low concentrations of Au nanoparticles or CdS quantum dots with an average diameter of has been shown to considerably reduce the threshold energy for filamentation and improve the laser output to supercontinuum conversion efficiency.