It is provided a method for generating a supercontinuum, the method comprising the following steps: a) radiating a carrier laser pulse having a first temporal width onto a first non-linear material; b) at the same time, radiating a second shorter laser pulse having a second temporal width onto the first non-linear material, thereby changing the non-linear properties of the first non-linear material and imprinting a ghost pulse having a third temporal width into the carrier pulse; the second temporal width being at least two times shorter than the first temporal width, and c) radiating the carrier pulse with imprinted ghost pulse onto the first non-linear material or a second non-linear material and generating, by self-phase modulating, a supercontinuum around the center frequency of the carrier pulse.

A system and process scans a target area at a distance of 3-30 m for one or more materials. Scanning is performed by a coherent transmit beam aimed with the help of a thermal camera. The active source of the beam is a supercontinuum (SC) laser. The transmitted source beam is modulated by a high-speed Fourier-transform spectrometer prior to interaction with the target. Target reflected source beam is detected by an infrared detector, along with a reference portion of the transmitted source beam, as a series of interferograms; passed through a digitizer for digitizing the interferograms; and processed to producing spectrograms, wherein the spectrograms are indicative of one or more materials on the target.

A Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) a method of its production and a supercontinuum light source comprising such PCF. The PCF has a longitudinal axis and includes a core extending along the length of said longitudinal axis and a cladding region surrounding the core. At least the cladding region includes a plurality of microstructures in the form of inclusions extending along the longitudinal axis of the PCF in at least a microstructured length section. In at least a degradation resistant length section of the microstructured length section the PCF includes hydrogen and/or deuterium. In at least the degradation resistant length section the PCF further includes a main coating surrounding the cladding region, which main coating is hermetic for the hydrogen and/or deuterium at a temperature below T.sub.h, wherein T.sub.h is at least about 50? C., preferably 50? C.<T.sub.h<250? C.

A coherent Raman spectro-microscopy system is configured for generating a spectro-microscopic image of a sample and includes a light source, a supercontinuum spectrum generator, a color filter assembly, and a spectro-microscopic assembly. The light source is for emitting at least one pulsed laser beam. The supercontinuum spectrum generator is for broadening the bandwidth of at least one pulsed laser beam. The color filter assembly is for filtering the bandwidth of at least one pulsed laser beam according to a predetermined bandwidth and converting at least one pulsed laser beam into a coherent spectro-microscopic laser beam. The sample is disposed in the spectro-microscopic assembly, and the spectro-microscopic assembly receives the coherent spectro-microscopic laser beam so that the coherent spectro-microscopic laser beam passes through the sample to generate the spectro-microscopic image of the sample.

The present invention provides a supercontinuum coherent light source, comprising: a laser generation device configured to generate a laser pulse having a peak optical intensity at a beam waist of the laser pulse being 0.47-0.9410.sup.13 W/cm.sup.2; and, a set of solid thin plates configured to spectrally broaden the laser pulse to generate a supercontinuous spectrum. The supercontinuum coherent light source of the present invention has an efficiency of up to 87% and the spectrum is broadened to more than one octave.

A method of making a microstructured optical fiber including loading the core and cladding materials of the fiber with hydrogen and deuterium at a loading temperature; annealing the fiber at a selected temperature T.sub.anneal; pumping the fiber with radiation; and reducing the temperature of the fiber and storing the fiber at the reduced temperature before the step of pumping the fiber; and wherein the method allows the hydrogen and the deuterium to become bound to the core material and the cladding material.

In one aspect, a method is provided for generating supercontinuum laser pulses within a continuous mid-infrared spectral range in a chalcogenide material. This method includes focusing an input laser beam of femtosecond pulses with a pulse energy higher than 10 microjoule along an optical path of the input laser beam; placing a chalcogenide material at a selected location along the optical path of the laser beam so that the laser intensity at the chalcogenide material is sufficiently high to cause nonlinear optical absorption that causes conversion of input optical energy into supercontinuum laser pulses of a pulse energy at or above a microjoule level at optical wavelengths within a broad continuous mid-infrared spectral range without damaging the chalcogenide material; and simultaneously moving the chalcogenide material laterally relative to the input laser beam to avoid damage to the chalcogenide material.

A coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering apparatus for imaging a sample includes an optical output; an optical source arranged to generate a first optical signal at a first wavelength; and a nonlinear element arranged to receive the first optical signal, where the nonlinear element is arranged to cause the first optical signal to undergo four-wave mixing on transmission through the nonlinear element such that a second optical signal at a second wavelength and a third optical signal at a third wavelength are generated, wherein an optical signal pair including two of the first, second and third optical signals is provided to the optical output for imaging the sample.

A broadband radiation source device configured for generating a broadband output radiation upon receiving pump radiation, the device including: a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) including at least one structurally varied portion having at least one structural parameter of the HC-PCF varied with respect to one or more main portions of the HC-PCF, wherein the at least one structurally varied portion includes at least a structurally varied portion located downstream of a position along the length of the HC-PCF where the pump radiation will be spectrally expanded by a modulation instability dominated nonlinear optical process, and wherein the at least one structurally varied portion is configured and located such that the broadband output radiation includes wavelengths in the ultraviolet region.

A spectroscopy system includes a light source having an input light source, including semiconductor diodes generating an input beam with a wavelength shorter than 2.5 microns. Cladding-pumped fiber amplifiers receive the input beam and form an amplified optical beam having a spectral width. A nonlinear element broadens the spectral width of the amplified optical beam to 100 nm or more through a nonlinear effect forming an output beam that is pulsed. A filter is coupled to at least one of a lens and a mirror that receives the output beam and delivers the filtered output beam to a sample. A detection system includes detectors configured to receive the output beam reflected or transmitted from the sample. The detection system is configured to use a lock-in technique with the pulsed output beam and the spectroscopy system is adapted to detect chemicals in the sample.