The optical fiber based supercontinuum source has recently become a significant scientific and commercial success, with applications ranging from frequency comb production to advanced medical imaging. This one-of-a-kind book explains the theory of fiber supercontinuum broadening, describes the diverse operational regimes and indicates principal areas of applications, making it a very important guide for researchers and graduate students. With contributions from major figures and groups who have pioneered research in this field, the book describes the historical development of the subject, provides a background to the associated nonlinear optical processes, treats the generation mechanisms from continuous wave to femtosecond pulse pump regimes and highlights the diverse applications. A full discussion of numerical methods and comprehensive computer code are also provided, enabling readers to confidently predict and model supercontinuum generation characteristics under realistic conditions.

Since the 3rd edition appeared, a fast evolution of the field has occurred. The fourth edition of this classic work provides an up-to-date account of the nonlinear phenomena occurring inside optical fibers. The contents include such important topics as self- and cross-phase modulation, stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering, four-wave mixing, modulation instability, and optical solitons. Many new figures have been added to help illustrate the concepts discussed in the book. New to this edition are chapters on highly nonlinear fibers and and the novel nonlinear effects that have been observed in these fibers since 2000. Such a chapter should be of interest to people in the field of new wavelengths generation, which has potential application in medical diagnosis and treatments, spectroscopy, new wavelength lasers and light sources, etc. Continues to be industry bestseller providing unique source of comprehensive coverage on the subject of nonlinear fiber optics Fourth Edition is a completely up-to-date treatment of the nonlinear phenomena occurring inside optical fibers Includes 2 NEW CHAPTERS on the properties of highly nonlinear fibers and their novel nonlinear effects

This new edition of a classic in the field has been expanded and enriched with new content and updated references. The book covers the fundamental principles and surveys research of current thinkers and experts in the field with updated references of the key breakthroughs over the past decade and a half.

This is the third edition of a well-known classic on ultrafast nonlinear and linear processes responsible for supercontinuum generation. Part I of the book reviews the progress achieved in experimental and theoretical understanding of the field, and goes over the applications developed since the discovery of the supercontinuum effect. The second part of the book covers recent research activity on supercontinuum phenomena and advances achieved since the publication of the previous edition. The new chapters specifically focus on: normal dispersion photonic band gap fibers; coherence in the supercontinuum; supercontinuum in the UV, NIR, and IR; and supercontinuum in XUV and X-rays for attosecond pulses. The Supercontinuum Laser Source is a definitive work by one of the discoverers of the white light effect. It is indispensable reading for any researcher or student working in the field of ultrafast laser physics.

This book focusses on the basic understanding of specialty optical fibers, their applications in mid-IR light generation, and the cutting-edge research in the field. The book provides all the basic knowledge about specialty optical fibers and their characteristics, including dispersion, losses, propagation of modes, and so forth. Finally, the technologies based on optical fibers and their applications in all prospective areas of research is discussed. Features: Provides an introduction to the history of the specialty optical fibers, and technologies based on specialty optical fibers. Explores specific applications of mid-IR supercontinuum generation in specialty optical fibers. Discusses the fabrication of specialty optical fiber-based photonic devices. Reviews the integration of nanotechnology with specialty optical fibers. Details future prospectives of specialty optical fiber-based photonic devices. This book is aimed at graduate students and researchers in photonics, optics, physics, and photonic crystal fibers.

This book is a contemporary overview of selected topics in fiber optics. It focuses on the latest research results on light wave manipulation using nonlinear optical fibers, with the aim of capturing some of the most innovative developments on this topic. The book’s scope covers both fundamentals and applications from both theoretical and experimental perspectives, with topics including linear and nonlinear effects, pulse propagation phenomena and pulse shaping, solitons and rogue waves, novel optical fibers, supercontinuum generation, polarization management, optical signal processing, fiber lasers, optical wave turbulence, light propagation in disordered fiber media, and slow and fast light. With contributions from leading-edge scientists in the field of nonlinear photonics and fiber optics, they offer an overview of the latest advances in their own research area. The listing of recent research papers at the end of each chapter is useful for researchers using the book as a reference. As the book addresses fundamental and practical photonics problems, it will also be of interest to, and benefit, broader academic communities, including areas such as nonlinear science, applied mathematics and physics, and optical engineering. It offers the reader a wide and critical overview of the state-of-the-art within this practical – as well as fundamentally important and interesting – area of modern science, providing a useful reference which will encourage further research and advances in the field.

Nonlinear optics is one of the most important fields of science and engineering, covering the generation, transmission, and control of the whole spectrum of laser pulses in solids, liquids, gases, and fibers. In turn, one of the most important ultrafast nonlinear optical processes is the supercontinuum generation - the production of intense ultrafast broadband "white light" pulses. This book is intended to fill the need of both scientists and graduate students for a single source book containing the most necessary and relevant material on supercontinuum technology. It reviews the basic principles, surveys research results, and presents the current thinking of experts in the supercontinuum field.

This book provides an updated description of the most relevant types of highly nonlinear fibers. It also describes some of their actual applications for nonlinear optical signal processing. Multiple types of highly nonlinear fibers are considered, such as silica-based conventional highly nonlinear fibers, tapered fibers, photonic crystal fibers, and fibers made of highly nonlinear materials, namely lead-silicate, tellurite, bismuth oxide, and chalcogenide glasses. Several nonlinear phenomena occurring on such highly nonlinear fibers are described and used to realize different functions in the area of all-optical signal processing.  Describes several nonlinear phenomena occurring on optical fibers, namely nonlinear phase modulation, parametric and stimulated scattering processes, optical solitons, and supercontinuum generation.  Discusses different types of highly nonlinear fibers, namely silica-based conventional highly nonlinear fibers, tapered fibers, and photonic crystal fibers.  Examines fibers made of highly nonlinear materials, namely lead-silicate, tellurite, bismuth oxide, and chalcogenide glasses.  Describes the application of several nonlinear phenomena occurring on highly nonlinear fibers to realize different functions in the area of all-optical signal processing, namely optical amplification, multiwavelength sources, pulse generation, optical regeneration, wavelength conversion, and optical switching. Mário F. S. Ferreira received his PhD degree in 1992 in physics from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, where he is now a professor in the Physics Department. Between 1990 and 1991, he was at the University of Essex, UK, performing experimental work on external cavity semiconductor lasers and nonlinear optical fiber amplifiers. His research interests have been concerned with the modeling and characterization of multisection semiconductor lasers, quantum well lasers, optical fiber amplifiers and lasers, soliton propagation, nanophotonics, optical sensors, polarization, and nonlinear effects in optical fibers. He has written more than 400 scientific journal and conference publications and several books in the area of mathematical physics, optics, and photonics. He has served as chair and committee member of multiple international conferences, as well as guest editor and advisory board member of several international journals.

"This thesis reports the comparison of numerical modeling approaches for the extreme case ofpulse propagation in optical fibers leading to supercontinuum generation. The widely-usedgeneralized nonlinear Schrödinger equation is introduced along with two other propagationmodels, the Fourier-domain generalized Schrödinger equation and the nonlinear envelopeequation, which are physically more accurate and retain the same first-order differentialequation formalism. The performance of the three propagation model is investigated withsimulations of different experimental results from the literature. The numerical results showthat the Fourier-domain generalized Schrödinger equation and the nonlinear envelope equationare useful tools in specific cases and that the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equationis nonetheless sufficiently accurate to model supercontinuum generation in a wide range ofexperimental conditions. This is subsequently corroborated in a practical example of supercontinuumsource prototype optimization aided with numerical simulations"--