Work

Toward 100‐Watt‐Level Mid‐Infrared Supercontinuum Light Generation

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The applications of mid‐infrared supercontinuum (SC) light sources are currently being extended to various fields. However, the difficulties (including thermal limitation, optical damage, and chemical stability) in increasing their output power to 100‐watt‐level prevent their application in high‐power fields (e.g., long‐distance remote sensing, hyperspectral imaging, directional infrared countermeasures, etc.). Here, we show that low‐loss (~0.022 dB/m) fluorotellurite glass fibers we developed can be used for constructing 100‐watt‐level all‐fiber mid‐infrared SC light sources. Low‐loss fluorotellurite glass fibers are fabricated by using a rod‐in‐tube method. A tilted fusion splicing method is developed to connect the output silica fibers of the pump source to fluorotellurite glass fibers for constructing all‐fiber SC light sources. By using a 75 cm long fluorotellurite glass fiber as the nonlinear medium and a high‐power 1.86–2.64 μm SC light output from a thulium‐doped fiber amplifier as the pump source, 96.7 W SC generation from 1260 to 3430 nm is achieved for a pump power of 160.7 W, and the corresponding optical‐to‐optical conversion efficiency is about 60.17%. Our results are promising for innovative high‐power applications of mid‐infrared SC light sources and further pave the way for realizing multihundred‐watt all‐fiber mid‐infrared SC light sources.

Source: Advanced Photonics Research

DOI: 10.1002/adpr.70278