Visible-to-near-infrared octave spanning supercontinuum generation in a silicon nitride waveguide

The generation of an octave spanning supercontinuum covering 488-978 nm (at -30 dB) is demonstrated for the first time on-chip. This result is achieved by dispersion engineering a 1-cm-long Si3N4 waveguide and pumping it with an 100-fs Ti: Sapphire laser emitting at 795 nm. This work offers a bright broadband source for biophotonic applications and frequency metrology. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America