White-light supercontinuum generation with 60-ps pump pulses in a photoniccrystal fiber

The generation of a spatially single-mode white-light supercontinuum. has b een observed in a photonic crystal fiber pumped with 60-ps pulses of subkil owatt peak power. The spectral broadening is identified as being due to the combined action of stimulated Raman scattering and parametric four-wave-mi xing generation, with a negligible contribution from the self-phase modulat ion of the pump pulses. The experimental results are in good agreement with detailed numerical simulations. These findings demonstrate that ultrafast femtosecond pulses are not needed for efficient supercontinuum. generation in photonic crystal fibers. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.