Simulation of octave spanning mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in dispersion-varying planar waveguides.

A dispersion-varying tapered planar waveguide is designed to generate supercontinuum efficiently in the mid-infrared region. The rib waveguide of lead-silicate glass on silica is 1.8 cm long, consisting of a segment with longitudinally increasing etch depth. The mechanism involves nonlinear soliton dynamics. The dispersion profile is shifted along the propagation distance, leading to continuous modification of the phase-matching condition for dispersive wave (DW) emission and enhancement of energy transfer efficiency between solitons and DWs. With low input pulse energy of 45 pJ, simulation demonstrates the generation of both broadband and flat near-octave spectrum spanning 1.3-2.5 μm at the -20  dB level.