Abstract
We observe that nanojoule femtosecond pulses that are spectrally broadened in a microstructured fiber acquire excess noise. The excess noise is manifested as an increase in the noise floor of the rf spectrum of the photocurrent from a photodetector illuminated by the pulse train from the laser oscillator. Measurements are made of the intensity dependence of the excess noise for both 100 fs and sub-10 fs pulses. The excess noise is very strong for 100 fs pulses, but barely measurable for sub-10 fs pulses. A rigorous quantum treatment of the nonlinear propagation of ultrashort pulses predicts that, for a fixed generated bandwidth, the amount of excess noise decreases with pulse duration, in agreement with the experimental results.
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42.65.Re; 42.62.Eh; 06.20.-f
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Ames, J., Ghosh, S., Windeler, R. et al. Excess noise generation during spectral broadening in a microstructured fiber. Appl Phys B 77, 279–284 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-003-1177-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-003-1177-8