Grating phase matching beyond a continuum edge

We show that fiber Bragg gratings can extend an optical continuum to spectral regions where continuum generation is very weak. Highly nonlinear fibers with Bragg grating resonances at 700, 750, and 800 nm were pumped with 70 fs pulses at 1580 nm and exhibited enhancement peaks up to 25 dB above the extremely weak continuum at these wavelengths, normally more than 40 dB below the average power in the continuum. We show that the grating peaks may be computed by treating the continuum pulse as an undepleted pump and including the grating dispersion as a phase-matching term. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.