Supercontinuum broadening in all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber by means of soliton compression in standard single-mode fiber

Using standard single-mode fiber as high-order soliton compressor for broadening supercontinuum in an 80 m long all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber is investigated experimentally and numerically. An analytical formula for calculating proper fiber input power to generate the broadest supercontinuum is derived. The numerical results show that the formula is more accurate in high power level corresponding to the soliton order which is larger than two. The measured supercontinuum − 20 dB bandwidth is broadened from 84.2 nm to 277.1 nm by using a 20 m long standard single-mode fiber without enhancing fiber input power. Numerical calculations of the amplitude noise in the output spectra show that using soliton compression effect can efficiently broaden the spectral bandwidth and not generate obvious noises.