4. Laser systems based on microstructured optical fibers

Very special microstructured optical fibers known as photonic bandgap fibers (PCFs) are manufactured today, primarily for high-speed telecommunications, but also as laser sources or for white-light supercontinuum generation. The latter, in particular, are based on the spectral transformation of ultra-short (nanosecond or picosecond) pulses resulting from various complex non-linear effects such as phase self-modulation, 4-wave mixing, stimulated Raman scattering and high-order soliton effects. These effects depend not only on chromatic dispersion and fiber length, but also on pulse duration, peak power and wavelength