An efficient broad-band mid-wave IR fiber optic light source: Design and performance simulation

TL;DR

This paper presents a design for a broad-band mid-wave IR fiber optic light source using four-wave mixing in a specially designed highly nonlinear chalcogenide fiber, achieving wide bandwidth and high efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fiber design with tailored dispersion for efficient FWM-based IR light generation, demonstrating significant bandwidth and power conversion improvements.

Findings

Achieved broad FWM bandwidth through dispersion engineering.

Demonstrated high power conversion efficiency (>32%).

Realized amplification of 25 dB in the 3-3.9 micron range.

Abstract

Design of a mid-wave IR (MWIR) broad-band fiber-based light source exploiting four-wave mixing (FWM) in a meter long suitably designed highly nonlinear (NL) chalcogenide microstructured optical fiber (MOF) is reported. This superior FWM bandwidth (BW) was obtained through precise tailoring of the fibers dispersion profile so as to realize positive quartic dispersion at the pump wavelength. We consider an Erbium (Er3+) doped continuous wave (CW) ZBLAN fiber laser emitting at 2.8 micron as the pump source with an average power of 5 W. Amplification factor as high as 25 dB is achievable in the 3 to 3.9 microns spectral range with average power conversion efficiency more than 32 percent.