Femtosecond soliton source with fast and broad spectral tunability

Abstract

We present a complete set of measurements and numerical simulations of a femtosecond soliton source with fast and broad spectral tunability and nearly constant pulse width and average power. Solitons generated in a photonic crystal fiber, at the low-power coupling regime, can be tuned in a broad range of wavelengths, from 850 to 1200 nm using the input power as the control parameter. These solitons keep almost constant time duration (∼40 fs) and spectral widths (∼20 nm) over the entire measured spectra regardless of input power. Our numerical simulations agree well with measurements and predict a wide working wavelength range and robustness to input parameters. © 2009 Optical Society of America.