Suspended core tellurite glass optical fibers for infrared supercontinuum generation

International audienceWe report the fabrication and characterization of tellurite TeO(2)-ZnO-Na(2)O (TZN) microstructured suspended core optical fibers (MOFs). These fibers are designed for infrared supercontinuum generation with zero dispersion wavelength (ZDW) at 1.451 mu m. The measured losses at this wavelength are approximately 6 dB/m for a MOF with a 2.2 mu m diameter core. The effective area of a particular fiber is 3.5 mu m(2) and the nonlinear coefficient is calculated to be 437 W(-1)km(-1). By pumping a 20 cm long fiber at 1.56 mu m with a sub-nj femtosecond laser source, we generate a supercontinuum (SC) spanning over 800 nm in the 1-2 mu m wavelength range