Theoretical design of a liquid-core photonic crystal fiber for supercontinuum generation

We have numerically studied a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber, with its core filled with highly nonlinear liquids such as carbon disulfide and nitrobenzene. Calculations show that the fiber has an extremely high nonlinear parameter gamma on the order of 2.4/W/m at 1.55 mum. The group velocity dispersion of this fiber exhibits an anomalous region in the near-infrared, and its zero-dispersion wavelength is around 1.55 mum. This leads to potentially significant improvements and a large bandwidth in supercontinuum generation. The spectral properties of the supercontinuum generation in liquid-core photonic crystal fibers are simulated by solving the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The results demonstrate that the liquid-core PCF is capable to generate dramatically broadened supercontinua in a range from 700 nm to more than 2500 nm when pumping at 1.55 mum with subpicosecond pulses.