Analysis of Correlations Among Supercontinuum Spectra using Liquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulator
The generation of supercontinuum spectra from the injection of femtosecond pulses into microstructure or tapered fibers has now been achieved by several groups(1)(2). In 2001, we have generated the supercontinuum around 1.55 μm by injecting a 100-fs-duration fiber laser pulse with a 1-nJ pulse energy into a 5-m-long highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber. Supercontinuum is a remarkable light source for applications in a lot of fields because of its extreme spectral broadness and the simple generation scheme. These unique properties should make the supercontinuum an ideal tool for important applications including WDM telecommunications, optical coherence tomography, optical-frequency measurement and so on. However, a significant broadband noise on the supercontinuum has been observed to limit its stability. So the supercontinuum is too noisy for many applications.In this study, we experimentally analyze the correlation among supercontinuum spectra that contribute increasing and decreasing this noise by spectral filtering using spatial light modulator. We observed the formation of correlations among supercontinuum spectra for two fibers which have different properties for chromatic dispersion. We also discuss how nonlinear effects act on the formation of correlations.