Generation of supercontinuum and its theoretical study in three-ring silica microstructured optical fibers

We report supercontinuum generation in nonlinear microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) especially fabricated in a two-step stack and draw process having three rings of airholes. High air-filling fraction (>0.9) is obtained in a simple and straightforward way during the drawing process which is essential to enhance nonlinearity. Two of the fabricated samples are characterized and zero dispersion wavelength is tailored to achieve efficient pumping in the anomalous group velocity dispersion regime. The characteristics of the supercontinuum band as observed experimentally show good agreement with the predicted numerically simulated results, where soliton mediated dispersive waves are distinctly observed.