The overall aim of this project is to understand the influence of geometry-induced resonances on the supercontinuum generation process in hybrid fiber waveguides, which defines a novel dispersion management scheme with the aim to unlock new soliton dynamics and to provide a novel and unexplored pathway towards scaling up energies in fiber-based supercontinuum generation.
The conceptually new idea is to use strong spectral resonances, induced by microstructured elements of the specific MOF design used, to massively modify GVD, thus altering soliton dynamics and DW phase-matching process in an unprecedented way. Modified step index fibers (MSIFs) including one single resonance strand and gas or liquid filled anti-resonant hollow core fibers (ARHCFs) are to be designed such to yield structural resonances in close proximity to the pump laser wavelength, allowing to understand how solitons and in particular the soliton fission process evolve in an environment in which the GVD changes by order of magnitude in a spectral interval of a few nanometres only. Using materials which refractive index (RI) can be tuned externally will allow to accurately understand how the generated light depends on relative spectral position of pump and resonance and on the resonance strength. In addition to understanding the supercontinuum dynamics from the nonlinear physics perspective the project aims to reveal how this new degree of dispersion engineering freedom allows to specifically transfer electromagnetic energy into desired spectral domain via modifying the DW phase-matching condition. From the application perspective, the project will reveal if the concept of geometry-induced resonance tuning provides a pathway for scaling output powers of soliton-based SCG via increasing core diameters. Preliminary simulations suggest that strong structural resonances allow maintaining the main dispersion characteristics (in particular the zero dispersion wavelength) when increasing core diameters..

The project is supported by DFG grant number SCHM 2655/11-1, AOBJ: 654416.