Suppression of supercontinuum generation with circularly polarized light

Controlling a nonlinear process such as supercontinuum generation (SG) with the polarization-state of laser is an important demonstration of laser sel ectivity. We show that the threshold for SG and the total amount of superco ntinuum generated depends on incident laser polarization for isotropic samp les. Irrespective of the nature of the samples chosen, SG efficiency decrea ses as the incident laser polarization changes from linear to circular and thus, provides the first experimental demonstration of the suppression of S G with circularly polarized light. The ratio of the overall SG between the linear and circular polarization (i.e., measure of suppression) undergoes a n intensity dependent decrease from large initial values to asymptotic limi ts, irrespective of samples. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese rved.