Octave-spanning spectrum generation in Ti:sapphire oscillator

A Ti:sapphire oscillator emitting an octave-spanning spectrum that ranges from 460 to 1000 nm is demonstrated. To our knowledge, it is the first time that a supercontinuum as a whole measured after the output coupler extending beyond 500 nm in the blue end is generated from a femtosecond Ti:sapphire oscillator. In the Ti:sapphire oscillator operating in self-Q-switched and self-mode locked mode, two chirped mirrors and a prism pair were used for dispersion compensation. These experimental results would open a new option for the construction of simple continuum sources.