Authors: Louis-Rafaël Robichaud, 1,2,* Vincent Fortin, 1 Jean-Christophe Gauthier, 1 Stéphane Châtigny, 2 Jean-François Couillard, 2 Jean-Luc Delarosbil, 2 Réal Vallée, 1 and Martin Bernier1
1 Center for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Université Laval, Québec G1 V 0A6, Canada
2 CorActive High-Tech Inc., Québec G2C 1S9, Canada
*Corresponding author: louis‑rafael.robichaud.1@ulaval.ca
A mid-infrared supercontinuum source spanning from 3 to 8 μm is demonstrated using a low-loss As2Se3 commercial step-index fiber. A maximum average output power of 1.5 mW is obtained at a low repetition rate of 2 kHz. Thanks to the low NA step-index fiber, the output is single mode for wavelengths above ∼5 μm. The pump source consists of an erbium-doped ZrF4-based in-amplifier supercontinuum source spanning from 3 to 4.2 μm. The effects of both the pump power and As2Se3 fiber length on the output characteristics are studied. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first compact supercontinuum source ever reported to reach 8 μm in a standard step-index fiber.