Optimisation of high average power optical parametric generation using a photonic crystal fiber

In this paper the length of a photonic crystal fiber is optimised to perform high average output power parametric generation with maximum efficiency. It is shown that the fiber length has to be increased up to 150 m, well beyond the walk-off distance between the pump and signal/idler, to optimize the generation efficiency. In this regime, the Raman process can take over from four-wave mixing and lead to supercontinuum generation. It is shown that the parametric wavelength conversion is directional; probably due to small variations in the core dimensions along the fiber length. The fiber exhibits up to 40% conversion efficiency, with the idler (0.9 microm) and the signal (1.3 microm) having a combined output power of over 1.5 W.