As-Se tapered suspended-core fibers for ultra-broadband mid-IR wavelength conversion: development, challenges, and prospects

We designed and developed tapered suspended-core fibers of high-purity As39Se61 glass for supercontinuum generation in the mid-IR with a standard fiber laser pump source at 2 {\mu}m. It was shown that microstructuring allows shifting a zero dispersion wavelength to the range shorter than 2 {\mu}m in the fiber waist with a core diameter of about 1 {\mu}m. In this case, supercontinuum generation in the 1-10 {\mu}m range was obtained numerically with 150-fs 100-pJ pump pulses at 2 {\mu}m. We also performed experiments on wavelength conversion of ultrashort optical pulses at 1.57 {\mu}m from Er: fiber laser system in the manufactured As-Se tapered fibers. The measured broadening spectra were in a good agreement with the ones simulated numerically.