Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in chalcogenides

We review experiments on mid-infrared supercontinuum (SC) generation including our own work on chalcogenide waveguides. Simulations are used to define the conditions in which a chalcogenide waveguide would produce SC from approximate to 2.5 mu m to beyond 10 mu m in a single waveguide device. The simulations suggested that broadband SC could be generated by pumping a bulk chalcogenide with fs pulses in the anomalous dispersion regime and this was demonstrated experimentally by producing a flat SC from 2.5 mu m to beyond 7.5 mu m. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America