Fiber-optic Cherenkov radiation has emerged as a wavelength conversion technique to achieve isolated spectrum in the visible wavelength range. Most published results have reinforced the impression that CR forms a narrowband spectrum with poor efficiency. We both theoretically and experimentally investigate fiber-optic Cherenkov radiation excited by few-cycle pulses. We introduce the coherence length to quantify the Cherenkov-radiation bandwidth and its dependence on propagation distance. Detailed numerical simulations verified by experimental results reveal three unique features that are absent when pumped with often-used, long pulses; that is, continuum generation (may span one octave in connection with the pump spectrum), high conversion efficiency (up to 40%), and broad bandwidth (70 nm experimentally obtained) for the isolated Cherenkov radiation spectrum. These merits allow achieving broadband visible-wavelength spectra from low-energy ultrafast sources which opens up new applications (e.g. precision calibration of astronomical spectrographs).

© 2011 OSA

1. P. K. A. Wai, C. R. Menyuk, Y. C. Lee, and H. H. Chen, “Nonlinear pulse propagation in the neighborhood of the zero-dispersion wavelength of monomode optical fibers,” Opt. Lett. 11(7), 464–466 (1986). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
2. P. K. A. Wai, H. H. Chen, and Y. C. Lee, “Radiations by “solitons” at the zero group-dispersion wavelength of single-mode optical fibers,” Phys. Rev. A 41(1), 426–439 (1990). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
3. V. I. Karpman, “Radiation by solitons due to higher-order dispersion,” Phys. Rev. E Stat. Phys. Plasmas Fluids Relat. Interdiscip. Topics 47(3), 2073–2082 (1993). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
4. N. Akhmediev and M. Karlsson, “Cherenkov radiation emitted by solitons in optical fibers,” Phys. Rev. A 51(3), 2602–2607 (1995). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
5. J. N. Elgin, T. Brabec, and S. M. J. Kelly, “A perturbative theory of soliton propagation in the presence of third order dispersion,” Opt. Commun. 114(3–4), 321–328 (1995). [CrossRef]
6. K. Saitoh, M. Koshiba, T. Hasegawa, and E. Sasaoka, “Chromatic dispersion control in photonic crystal fibers: application to ultra-flattened dispersion,” Opt. Express 11(8), 843–852 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
7. D. V. Skryabin, F. Luan, J. C. Knight, and P. St. J. Russell, “Soliton self-frequency shift cancellation in photonic crystal fibers,” Science 301(5640), 1705–1708 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
8. S. Stark, F. Biancalana, A. Podlipensky, and P. St. J.Russell, “Nonlinear wavelength conversion in photonic crystal fibers with three zero dispersion points,” Phys. Rev. A 83(2), 023808 (2011). [CrossRef]
9. D. V. Skryabin and A. V. Yulin, “Theory of generation of new frequencies by mixing of solitons and dispersive waves in optical fibers,” Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 72(1), 016619 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
10. A. V. Husakou and J. Herrmann, “Supercontinuum generation of higher-order solitons by fission in photonic crystal fibers,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 87(20), 203901 (2001). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
11. A. V. Husakou and J. Herrmann, “Supercontinuum generation, four-wave mixing, and fission of higher- order solitons in photonic-crystal fibers,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 19(9), 2171–2182 (2002). [CrossRef]
12. L. Tartara, I. Cristiani, and V. Degiorgio, “Blue light and infrared continuum generation by soliton fission in a microstructured fiber,” Appl. Phys. B 77(2–3), 307–311 (2003). [CrossRef]
13. G. Genty, M. Lehtonen, and H. Ludvigsen, “Effect of cross-phase modulation on supercontinuum generation in microstructured fibers with sub-30 fs pulses,” Opt. Express 12(19), 4614–4624 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
14. D. R. Austin, C. M. de Sterke, B. J. Eggleton, and T. G. Brown, “Dispersive wave blue-shift in supercontinuum generation,” Opt. Express 14(25), 11997–12007 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
15. A. V. Gorbach and D. V. Skryabin, “Light trapping in gravity-like potentials and expansion of supercontinuum spectra in photonic-crystal fibres,” Nat. Photonics 1(11), 653–657 (2007). [CrossRef]
16. S. P. Stark, A. Podlipensky, N. Y. Joly, and P. St. J. Russell, “Ultraviolet-enhanced supercontinuum generation in tapered photonic crystal fiber,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27(3), 592–598 (2010). [CrossRef]
17. J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, “Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 78(4), 1135–1184 (2006). [CrossRef]
18. S. Roy, S. K. Bhadra, and G. P. Agrawal, “Effects of higher-order dispersion on resonant dispersive waves emitted by solitons,” Opt. Lett. 34(13), 2072–2074 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
19. A. A. Amorim, H. M. Crespo, M. Miranda, J. L. Silva, and L. M. Bernardo, “Study of non-solitonic blue-green radiation generated in mm-long photonic crystal fibers,” Proc. SPIE 6187, 618717 (2006). [CrossRef]
20. A. V. Mitrofanov, Y. M. Linik, R. Buczynski, D. Pysz, D. Lorenc, I. Bugar, A. A. Ivanov, M. V. Alfimov, A. B. Fedotov, and A. M. Zheltikov, “Highly birefringent silicate glass photonic-crystal fiber with polarization-controlled frequency-shifted output: A promising fiber light source for nonlinear Raman microspectroscopy,” Opt. Express 14(22), 10645–10651 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
21. H. Tu and S. A. Boppart, “Optical frequency up-conversion by supercontinuum-free widely-tunable fiber-optic Cherenkov radiation,” Opt. Express 17(12), 9858–9872 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
22. H. Tu and S. A. Boppart, “Ultraviolet-visible non-supercontinuum ultrafast source enabled by switching single silicon strand-like photonic crystal fibers,” Opt. Express 17(20), 17983–17988 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
23. G. Q. Chang, L.-J. Chen, and F. X. Kärtner, “Highly efficient Cherenkov radiation in photonic crystal fibers for broadband visible wavelength generation,” Opt. Lett. 35(14), 2361–2363 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
24. F. X. Kärtner, ed., Few-Cycle Laser Pulse Generation and Its Applications (Springer, 2004).
25. S. Hill, C. E. Kuklewicz, U. Leonhardt, and F. König, “Evolution of light trapped by a soliton in a microstructured fiber,” Opt. Express 17(16), 13588–13600 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
26. G. Krauss, S. Lohss, T. Hanke, A. Sell, S. Eggert, R. Huber, and A. Leitenstorfer, “Synthesis of a single cycle of light with compact erbium-doped fibre technology,” Nat. Photonics 4(1), 33–36 (2010). [CrossRef]
27. G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2001).
28. Q. Lin and G. P. Agrawal, “Raman response function for silica fibers,” Opt. Lett. 31(21), 3086–3088 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
29. A. Nahata, A. S. Weling, and T. F. Heinz, “A wideband coherent terahertz spectroscopy system using optical rectification and electro-optic sampling,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 69(16), 2321–2323 (1996). [CrossRef]
30. Y. Kodama and A. Hasegawa, “Nonlinear pulse propagation in a monomode dielectric guide,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 23(5), 510–524 (1987). [CrossRef]
31. S. Roy, S. K. Bhadra, and G. P. Agrawal, “Effects of higher-order dispersion on resonant dispersive waves emitted by solitons,” Opt. Lett. 34(13), 2072–2074 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
32. M. T. Murphy, T. Udem, R. Holzwarth, A. Sizmann, L. Pasquini, C. Araujo-Hauck, H. Dekker, S. D'Odorico, M. Fischer, T. W. Hänsch, and A. Manescau, “High-precision wavelength calibration of astronomical spectrographs with laser frequency combs,” Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 380(2), 839–847 (2007). [CrossRef]
33. C.-H. Li, A. J. Benedick, P. Fendel, A. G. Glenday, F. X. Kärtner, D. F. Phillips, D. Sasselov, A. Szentgyorgyi, and R. L. Walsworth, “A laser frequency comb that enables radial velocity measurements with a precision of 1 cm s−1,” Nature 452(7187), 610–612 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
34. T. Steinmetz, T. Wilken, C. Araujo-Hauck, R. Holzwarth, T. W. Hänsch, L. Pasquini, A. Manescau, S. D’Odorico, M. T. Murphy, T. Kentischer, W. Schmidt, and T. Udem, “Laser frequency combs for astronomical observations,” Science 321(5894), 1335–1337 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
35. D. A. Braje, M. S. Kirchner, S. Osterman, T. Fortier, and S. A. Diddams, “Astronomical spectrograph calibration with broad-spectrum frequency combs,” Eur. Phys. J. D 48(1), 57–66 (2008). [CrossRef]
36. G. Q. Chang, C.-H. Li, D. F. Phillips, R. L. Walsworth, and F. X. Kärtner, “Toward a broadband astro-comb: effects of nonlinear spectral broadening in optical fibers,” Opt. Express 18(12), 12736–12747 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
37. T. Wilken, C. Lovis, A. Manescau, T. Steinmetz, L. Pasquini, G. Lo Curto, T. W. Hänsch, R. Holzwarth, and T. Udem, “High-precision calibration of spectrographs,” Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. Lett. 405(1), L16–L20 (2010). [CrossRef]
38. C.-H. Li, A. G. Glenday, A. J. Benedick, G. Q. Chang, L.-J. Chen, C. Cramer, P. Fendel, G. Furesz, F. X. Kärtner, S. Korzennik, D. F. Phillips, D. Sasselov, A. Szentgyorgyi, and R. L. Walsworth, “In-situ determination of astro-comb calibrator lines to better than 10 cm−1,” Opt. Express 18(12), 13239–13249 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
39. F. Quinlan, G. Ycas, S. Osterman, and S. A. Diddams, “A 12.5 GHz-spaced optical frequency comb spanning >400 nm for near-infrared astronomical spectrograph calibration,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81(6), 063105 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
40. A. J. Benedick, G. Q. Chang, J. R. Birge, L.-J. Chen, A. G. Glenday, C.-H. Li, D. F. Phillips, A. Szentgyorgyi, S. Korzennik, G. Furesz, R. L. Walsworth, and F. X. Kärtner, “Visible wavelength astro-comb,” Opt. Express 18(18), 19175–19184 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
41. F. Bouchy, F. Pepe, and D. Queloz, “Fundamental photon noise limit to radial velocity measurements,” Astron. Astrophys. 374(2), 733–739 (2001). [CrossRef]
42. C.-H. Li, G. Q. Chang, L.-J. Chen, D. Phillips, F. Kärtner, and R. Walsworth, “Lab demonstration and characterization of a green astro-comb,” Advanced Solid-State Photonics (ASSP) (2011), paper AME5.

Appl. Phys. B

• L. Tartara, I. Cristiani, and V. Degiorgio, “Blue light and infrared continuum generation by soliton fission in a microstructured fiber,” Appl. Phys. B 77(2–3), 307–311 (2003). [CrossRef]

Appl. Phys. Lett.

• A. Nahata, A. S. Weling, and T. F. Heinz, “A wideband coherent terahertz spectroscopy system using optical rectification and electro-optic sampling,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 69(16), 2321–2323 (1996). [CrossRef]

Astron. Astrophys.

• F. Bouchy, F. Pepe, and D. Queloz, “Fundamental photon noise limit to radial velocity measurements,” Astron. Astrophys. 374(2), 733–739 (2001). [CrossRef]

Eur. Phys. J. D

• D. A. Braje, M. S. Kirchner, S. Osterman, T. Fortier, and S. A. Diddams, “Astronomical spectrograph calibration with broad-spectrum frequency combs,” Eur. Phys. J. D 48(1), 57–66 (2008). [CrossRef]

IEEE J. Quantum Electron.

• Y. Kodama and A. Hasegawa, “Nonlinear pulse propagation in a monomode dielectric guide,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 23(5), 510–524 (1987). [CrossRef]

J. Opt. Soc. Am. B

• S. P. Stark, A. Podlipensky, N. Y. Joly, and P. St. J. Russell, “Ultraviolet-enhanced supercontinuum generation in tapered photonic crystal fiber,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27(3), 592–598 (2010). [CrossRef]
• A. V. Husakou and J. Herrmann, “Supercontinuum generation, four-wave mixing, and fission of higher- order solitons in photonic-crystal fibers,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 19(9), 2171–2182 (2002). [CrossRef]

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

• M. T. Murphy, T. Udem, R. Holzwarth, A. Sizmann, L. Pasquini, C. Araujo-Hauck, H. Dekker, S. D'Odorico, M. Fischer, T. W. Hänsch, and A. Manescau, “High-precision wavelength calibration of astronomical spectrographs with laser frequency combs,” Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 380(2), 839–847 (2007). [CrossRef]

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. Lett.

• T. Wilken, C. Lovis, A. Manescau, T. Steinmetz, L. Pasquini, G. Lo Curto, T. W. Hänsch, R. Holzwarth, and T. Udem, “High-precision calibration of spectrographs,” Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. Lett. 405(1), L16–L20 (2010). [CrossRef]

Nat. Photonics

• G. Krauss, S. Lohss, T. Hanke, A. Sell, S. Eggert, R. Huber, and A. Leitenstorfer, “Synthesis of a single cycle of light with compact erbium-doped fibre technology,” Nat. Photonics 4(1), 33–36 (2010). [CrossRef]
• A. V. Gorbach and D. V. Skryabin, “Light trapping in gravity-like potentials and expansion of supercontinuum spectra in photonic-crystal fibres,” Nat. Photonics 1(11), 653–657 (2007). [CrossRef]

Nature

• C.-H. Li, A. J. Benedick, P. Fendel, A. G. Glenday, F. X. Kärtner, D. F. Phillips, D. Sasselov, A. Szentgyorgyi, and R. L. Walsworth, “A laser frequency comb that enables radial velocity measurements with a precision of 1 cm s−1,” Nature 452(7187), 610–612 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Commun.

• J. N. Elgin, T. Brabec, and S. M. J. Kelly, “A perturbative theory of soliton propagation in the presence of third order dispersion,” Opt. Commun. 114(3–4), 321–328 (1995). [CrossRef]

Opt. Express

• K. Saitoh, M. Koshiba, T. Hasegawa, and E. Sasaoka, “Chromatic dispersion control in photonic crystal fibers: application to ultra-flattened dispersion,” Opt. Express 11(8), 843–852 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• G. Genty, M. Lehtonen, and H. Ludvigsen, “Effect of cross-phase modulation on supercontinuum generation in microstructured fibers with sub-30 fs pulses,” Opt. Express 12(19), 4614–4624 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• D. R. Austin, C. M. de Sterke, B. J. Eggleton, and T. G. Brown, “Dispersive wave blue-shift in supercontinuum generation,” Opt. Express 14(25), 11997–12007 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• A. V. Mitrofanov, Y. M. Linik, R. Buczynski, D. Pysz, D. Lorenc, I. Bugar, A. A. Ivanov, M. V. Alfimov, A. B. Fedotov, and A. M. Zheltikov, “Highly birefringent silicate glass photonic-crystal fiber with polarization-controlled frequency-shifted output: A promising fiber light source for nonlinear Raman microspectroscopy,” Opt. Express 14(22), 10645–10651 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• H. Tu and S. A. Boppart, “Optical frequency up-conversion by supercontinuum-free widely-tunable fiber-optic Cherenkov radiation,” Opt. Express 17(12), 9858–9872 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• H. Tu and S. A. Boppart, “Ultraviolet-visible non-supercontinuum ultrafast source enabled by switching single silicon strand-like photonic crystal fibers,” Opt. Express 17(20), 17983–17988 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• G. Q. Chang, C.-H. Li, D. F. Phillips, R. L. Walsworth, and F. X. Kärtner, “Toward a broadband astro-comb: effects of nonlinear spectral broadening in optical fibers,” Opt. Express 18(12), 12736–12747 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• C.-H. Li, A. G. Glenday, A. J. Benedick, G. Q. Chang, L.-J. Chen, C. Cramer, P. Fendel, G. Furesz, F. X. Kärtner, S. Korzennik, D. F. Phillips, D. Sasselov, A. Szentgyorgyi, and R. L. Walsworth, “In-situ determination of astro-comb calibrator lines to better than 10 cm−1,” Opt. Express 18(12), 13239–13249 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• A. J. Benedick, G. Q. Chang, J. R. Birge, L.-J. Chen, A. G. Glenday, C.-H. Li, D. F. Phillips, A. Szentgyorgyi, S. Korzennik, G. Furesz, R. L. Walsworth, and F. X. Kärtner, “Visible wavelength astro-comb,” Opt. Express 18(18), 19175–19184 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• S. Hill, C. E. Kuklewicz, U. Leonhardt, and F. König, “Evolution of light trapped by a soliton in a microstructured fiber,” Opt. Express 17(16), 13588–13600 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Lett.

• S. Roy, S. K. Bhadra, and G. P. Agrawal, “Effects of higher-order dispersion on resonant dispersive waves emitted by solitons,” Opt. Lett. 34(13), 2072–2074 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• S. Roy, S. K. Bhadra, and G. P. Agrawal, “Effects of higher-order dispersion on resonant dispersive waves emitted by solitons,” Opt. Lett. 34(13), 2072–2074 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• Q. Lin and G. P. Agrawal, “Raman response function for silica fibers,” Opt. Lett. 31(21), 3086–3088 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• G. Q. Chang, L.-J. Chen, and F. X. Kärtner, “Highly efficient Cherenkov radiation in photonic crystal fibers for broadband visible wavelength generation,” Opt. Lett. 35(14), 2361–2363 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• P. K. A. Wai, C. R. Menyuk, Y. C. Lee, and H. H. Chen, “Nonlinear pulse propagation in the neighborhood of the zero-dispersion wavelength of monomode optical fibers,” Opt. Lett. 11(7), 464–466 (1986). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Phys. Rev. A

• P. K. A. Wai, H. H. Chen, and Y. C. Lee, “Radiations by “solitons” at the zero group-dispersion wavelength of single-mode optical fibers,” Phys. Rev. A 41(1), 426–439 (1990). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• N. Akhmediev and M. Karlsson, “Cherenkov radiation emitted by solitons in optical fibers,” Phys. Rev. A 51(3), 2602–2607 (1995). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• S. Stark, F. Biancalana, A. Podlipensky, and P. St. J.Russell, “Nonlinear wavelength conversion in photonic crystal fibers with three zero dispersion points,” Phys. Rev. A 83(2), 023808 (2011). [CrossRef]

Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys.

• D. V. Skryabin and A. V. Yulin, “Theory of generation of new frequencies by mixing of solitons and dispersive waves in optical fibers,” Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 72(1), 016619 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Phys. Rev. E Stat. Phys. Plasmas Fluids Relat. Interdiscip. Topics

• V. I. Karpman, “Radiation by solitons due to higher-order dispersion,” Phys. Rev. E Stat. Phys. Plasmas Fluids Relat. Interdiscip. Topics 47(3), 2073–2082 (1993). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Phys. Rev. Lett.

• A. V. Husakou and J. Herrmann, “Supercontinuum generation of higher-order solitons by fission in photonic crystal fibers,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 87(20), 203901 (2001). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Proc. SPIE

• A. A. Amorim, H. M. Crespo, M. Miranda, J. L. Silva, and L. M. Bernardo, “Study of non-solitonic blue-green radiation generated in mm-long photonic crystal fibers,” Proc. SPIE 6187, 618717 (2006). [CrossRef]

Rev. Mod. Phys.

• J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, “Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 78(4), 1135–1184 (2006). [CrossRef]

Rev. Sci. Instrum.

• F. Quinlan, G. Ycas, S. Osterman, and S. A. Diddams, “A 12.5 GHz-spaced optical frequency comb spanning >400 nm for near-infrared astronomical spectrograph calibration,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81(6), 063105 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Science

• T. Steinmetz, T. Wilken, C. Araujo-Hauck, R. Holzwarth, T. W. Hänsch, L. Pasquini, A. Manescau, S. D’Odorico, M. T. Murphy, T. Kentischer, W. Schmidt, and T. Udem, “Laser frequency combs for astronomical observations,” Science 321(5894), 1335–1337 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• D. V. Skryabin, F. Luan, J. C. Knight, and P. St. J. Russell, “Soliton self-frequency shift cancellation in photonic crystal fibers,” Science 301(5640), 1705–1708 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Other

• F. X. Kärtner, ed., Few-Cycle Laser Pulse Generation and Its Applications (Springer, 2004).
• G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2001).
• C.-H. Li, G. Q. Chang, L.-J. Chen, D. Phillips, F. Kärtner, and R. Walsworth, “Lab demonstration and characterization of a green astro-comb,” Advanced Solid-State Photonics (ASSP) (2011), paper AME5.

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