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Supercontinua

Entering the mid-infrared

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 814–815 (2014)Cite this article

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The demonstration of chalcogenide fibre-based supercontinuum sources that reach beyond a wavelength of ten micrometres is set to have a major impact on spectroscopy and molecular sensing.

Supercontinuum generation is one of the most fascinating effects in nonlinear optics. Starting with a nearly monochromatic input beam, a rainbow of colours can be generated, continuously spanning more than one optical octave across the visible and near-infrared spectral region. Compared with conventional white-light sources (including the Sun), the resulting white light of these supercontinua may reach a spectral brightness that is up to a million times brighter. Furthermore, the excellent spatial coherence of fibre-based white-light sources allows for laser-like tight focusing while overcoming the monochromatic nature of conventional continuous-wave lasers.

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Figure 1: Illustration of supercontinuum generation in the mid-infrared 'molecular fingerprint' region.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Günter Steinmeyer is at the Max Born Institute, Max-Born-Straße 2a, 12489 Berlin, Germany,

    Günter Steinmeyer

  2. Julia S. Skibina is at LLC SPE Nanostructured Glass Technology, Prospect 50 let Oktyabrya 101, Saratov 410033, Russian Federation,

    Julia S. Skibina

Authors
  1. Günter Steinmeyer
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  2. Julia S. Skibina
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Correspondence to Günter Steinmeyer.

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Steinmeyer, G., Skibina, J. Entering the mid-infrared. Nature Photon 8, 814–815 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.254

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