The ultimate white light

Supercintinuum (SC) laser light is a light source that combines the properties of a laser with the broad bandwidth of an incandescent bulb, enables the most precise frequency and time measurements with a high optical data transmission rate. The basic technique that was used to produce the SC involved sending very high intensity pulses of green laser light that were only picoseconds long through special crystals or glasses. SC was applied to study the dynamics of vibrational excitations in liquids, and also used as a novel tool to probe fundamental picosecond and fematosecond processes. The fibers used for SC generation are a special kind of microstructure fibers, and the concentric arrangement of refractive indices serves to guide the laser pulses along the fiber. The ultrabroad bandwidth of the SC makes it a cost effective way to obtain numerous wavelength channels without having to resort to using hundreds of lasers.