Ultrabroad supercontinuum generated from a highly nonlinear Ge-Sb-Se fiber

We report the fabrication of a novel high nonlinear fiber made of Ge-Sb-Se chalcogenide glasses with high numerical aperture (similar to 1.0), where the core and the cladding glasses consist of Ge15Sb25Se60 and Ge15Sb20Se65 (mol. %), respectively. The nonlinear refractive index (n(2)) of the core glass is 19 x 10(-18) m(2)/W at 1.55 mu m, and its laser-induced damage threshold under irradiation of 3.0 mu m fs laser is approximately 3674 GW/cm(2). By pumping a 20-cm-long fiber with a core diameter of 23 mu m using 150 fs pulses at 6.0 mu m, supercontinuum spanning from similar to 1.8 to similar to 14 mu m was generated. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America