Mid-infrared ZBLAN fiber supercontinuum source using picosecond diode-pumping at 2 μm

We present the first demonstration of mid-IR supercontinuum generation directly pumped with picosecond pulses from a Thulium fiber-amplified gain-switched laser diode at 2 mu m. We achieve more than two octaves of bandwidth from 750 - 4000 nm in step-index ZBLAN fiber with Watt-level average power and spectral flatness of less than 1.5 dB over a 1300 nm range in the mid-IR from 2450 - 3750 nm. The system offers high stability, power-scaling capability to the 10 W regime, and demonstrates an attractive route towards relatively inexpensive, versatile and practical sources of high power broadband mid-IR radiation. (C)2013 Optical Society of America