Theoretical and experimental research of supercontinuum generation in an ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier

The theoretical research of supercontinuum (SC) generation in a fiber amplifier system has been seldom reported. For the purpose of further understanding the mechanism of SC generation in fiber amplifiers, we propose a combined numerical model of the laser rate equations and the generalized non-linear Schrödinger equation to simulate the amplification of 1060 nm picosecond pulses and their spectral broadening in an ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier. The calculation results of this model are compared with the experimental results under the same conditions and a good agreement is achieved. We find that the pulse is gain amplified initially, and then dominated by stimulated Raman scattering in the normal dispersion region. In anomalous dispersion region, modulation instability, higher-order soliton fission and soliton self-frequency shift dominates the spectral broadening. It is found numerically and experimentally that the length of the gain fiber and the 976 nm pump power are the most imperative parameters to control the output power, spectral range and flatness of the SC. The pulse width of signal pulse also plays a part in influencing SC generation. The results verify that our model is promising for analyzing the physical processes of pulse evolution and SC generation in a fiber amplifier system.