Sign-Alternating Dispersion Patterning for Supercontinuum Generation

Supercontinuum generation (SCG), a process that generates a wide and coherent bandwidth of light, has become foundational in emergent optical technologies in a plethora of fields, such as optical coherence tomography (OCT), metrology (e.g., integrated photonic Kerr combs) and precision sensing. As advanced applications of SCG emerge, the requirements on the spectral bandwidth, the coherence, its temporal compressibility, and the quality of the optical spectral content (e.g., a uniformly flat spectral profile) are increasing. Moreover, as these technologies need not be restricted to the lab, the spectral conversion efficiency of SCG must increase from current technology that functions, e.g., in the tens of nJ pulse energy, to sub nJ levels.