White light spectra generated in photonic crystal fibres

Summary form only given. Photonic crystal fibre (PCF) has recently been demonstrated to be an excellent source of extremely broadband supercontinuum radiation. This is due to the small core sizes and to the novel group velocity dispersion (GVD) imparted to the guided mode by the array of air holes which form the fibre cladding. With large air holes in the cladding and a small core, the wavelength for zero GVD may be reduced from beyond 1.3 /spl mu/m for conventional fibres to the region of 500-900 nm. We shall discuss the parameters affecting the generation of a supercontinuum, its properties and possible application of this new source to areas such as spectrometry, absolute frequency metrology and white light interferometry.