Supercontinuum generation in submicron fibre waveguides

Submicron-diameter tapered fibres and photonic crystal fibre cores, both of which are silica-air waveguides with low dispersion at 532 nm, were made using a conventional tapering process. In just cm of either waveguide, ns pulses from a low-power 532-nm microchip laser generated a single-mode supercontinuum broad enough to fill the visible spectrum without spreading far beyond it.