Fundamental noise limitations to supercontinuum generation in microstructure fiber

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Mar 21;90(11):113904. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.113904. Epub 2003 Mar 21.

Abstract

Broadband noise on supercontinuum spectra generated in microstructure fiber is shown to lead to amplitude fluctuations as large as 50% for certain input laser pulse parameters. We study this noise using both experimental measurements and numerical simulations with a generalized stochastic nonlinear Schrödinger equation, finding good quantitative agreement over a range of input-pulse energies and chirp values. This noise is shown to arise from nonlinear amplification of two quantum noise inputs: the input-pulse shot noise and the spontaneous Raman scattering down the fiber.