5 |
Supercontinuum Generation |
5.1 INTRODUCTION
One of the most impressive nonlinear phenomena that can be observed in highly nonlinear fibers is the supercontinuum generation (SCG). It corresponds to an extremely wide spectrum achieved by an optical pulse while propagating in a nonlinear medium, and results generally from the synergy between several fundamental nonlinear processes, such as self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), and four-wave mixing (FWM) [1]. The spectral location and power of the pump, as well as the nonlinear and dispersive characteristics of the medium, determine the relative importance and the interaction between these nonlinear processes. The first observation of supercontinuum ...
