Sub-100 fs soliton pulses and broadband spectral continuum

High power with short coherence length broadband optical sources are required for applications such as spectroscopy, optical coherent-length reflectometery and optical coherence tomography. We have generated a broadband spectral continuum by amplifying the high energy 125 fs pulses generated from a figure-of-eight fibre laser. The amplified pulses are launched into a section of dispersion shifted fibre to produce a broadband spectral continuum by stimulated Raman scattering. The broadest spectral width achieved is 97.24 nm with a corresponding pulse width of 33 fs. The shortest coherence length of the spectral continuum is only 10 μm