Interplay of Kerr and Raman beam cleaning with a multimode microstructure fiber

TL;DR

This paper experimentally investigates how Kerr and Raman effects interact in a multimode microstructure fiber, revealing their competition, effects on beam quality, and supercontinuum generation from 500 to 1800 nm.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the interplay between Kerr self-cleaning and Raman processes in multimode fibers, including their impact on beam quality and supercontinuum generation.

Findings

Kerr self-cleaning occurs within a specific power range.

Raman processes deplete and degrade the pump beam.

Multimode supercontinuum spanning 500-1800 nm is generated.

Abstract

We experimentally study the competition between Kerr beam self-cleaning and Raman beam cleanup in a multimode air-silica microstructure optical fiber. Kerr beam self-cleaning of the pump is observed for a certain range of input powers only. Raman Stokes beam generation and cleanup lead to both depletion and degradation of beam quality for the pump. The interplay of modal four-wave mixing and Raman scattering in the infrared domain lead to the generation of a multimode supercontinuum ranging from 500 nm up to 1800 nm.