Manipulating supercontinuum generation by minute continuous wave

We report a simple triggering mechanism that greatly enhances and stabilizes supercontinuum generation by using an extremely weak cw light (similar to 200,000 times weaker than the pump light). Such an active manipulation scheme can be enabled by a wide range of input conditions and circumvents complex techniques such as precise time delay tuning and dedicated feedback control. It thus offers a handy and versatile approach to control and optimize supercontinuum generation, expanding its range of applications, including ultrafast all-optical signal processing, spectroscopy, and imaging. The utility of the present technique for improving signal integrity in chirped pump optical parametric amplification is also demonstrated. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America