Fabrication and supercontinuum generation in dispersion flattened bismuth microstructured optical fiber

We fabricated a microstructured optical fiber with a dispersion profile that, according to calculations, is near-zero and flat, with 3 zero dispersion wavelengths in the mid-IR. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of the fabrication of such a fiber. Simulations of multimode supercontinuum generation were performed using a simplified approach. Strong agreement between experiments and simulations were observed using this approach. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America