Patent ID: 8305682

Claim:
A method for generating broadly tunable visible or ultraviolet optical pulses, substantially free of non-frequency-specific supercontinuum emission, the method comprising: a. providing a pulsed source for generating pump pulses characterized by a spectrum having a central emission wavelength λ 0 , a bandwidth, and an average power; b. providing a photonic crystal fiber characterized by a short-wavelength zero dispersion wavelength; and c. pumping the fiber with the pump pulses at a pump wavelength, thereby exciting a nonlinear process in such a manner as to produce an isolated spectral band in the visible or ultraviolet characterized by a central wavelength that is tuned over a range of greater than 20 nm, wherein the isolated band in the visible or ultraviolet is further characterized by a 10 dB bandwidth of less than 50 nm, and a power spectral density exceeding that of any continuum emission adjacent to it by at least 10 dB, wherein the average power in the isolated spectral band exceeds 0.1 mW.