Effect of cavity structure on the spectrum of the supercontinuum generated in a linear cavity pumped by a continuous-wave Raman fiber laser

With a 10-km single-mode fiber and a pair of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), we design four different linear cavity structures for super-continuum (SC) generation using a cw Raman fiber laser (RFL) as pump. The output characteristics of the generated SC in these different constructs are compared when the RFL reaches its maximum output power. The broadest SC spectrum of 100 nm and the highest output power of 1.1 W are obtained when the nested cavity structure is employed. The influences of the feedback FBGs and cavity constructs on the SC generation are analyzed by considering the Raman effect and four-wave mixing. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation EngineersI.