Nonlinear propagation and continuum generation in microstructured optical fibers

A theoretical investigation of the propagation of femtosecond pulses under conditions similar to those of recent experiments in which a white-light continuum was generated in a microstructured fiber is presented. It is found that higher-order dispersion primarily determines the shape and width of the generated spectrum and that the fine spectral substructure exhibits extreme sensitivity to the initial pulse energy. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.