All-PM fiber supercontinuum source with 30.8W output average power and spectral span from 430 nm to beyond 2400nm

This work reports the generation of a linearly polarized supercontinuum (SC) using an all-polarization-maintaining master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) pumping a polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF). The source delivers an average output power of 30.8 W and, after removing the residual pump, provides a -10 dB bandwidth spanning 430-2400 nm, with the spectrum extending beyond 2400 nm. The influence of the microstructured fiber geometry on SC formation was quantified through generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation (GNLSE) simulations combined with parametric sweeps, where the dispersion and nonlinear coefficient (γ) were obtained from an equivalent non-PM microstructured fiber model. This enabled the selection of an optimized design (denoted Sample 2) by jointly considering the zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW), γ, and the predicted short-wavelength cutoff (SWC). Simulations were further used to optimize the pump power and fiber length, and the measured spectrum shows good agreement with the numerical results, validating the model and the chosen operating conditions.