Mid-Infrared Supercontinuum Sources: Materials, Waveguides and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

In the past decade, there has been a growing interest in mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy instrumentation and suitable mid-IR light sources, which has mainly driven the development of novel materials and the improving quality of traditional mid-IR materials for a vast range of optical components. Emerging supercontinuum (SC) laser sources appears as a promising alternative to typical sources of mid-IR radiations including thermal light source and tunable lasers. Such SC sources deliver mid-IR radiation through nonlinear frequency conversion in guided optics of commonly available near-IR laser sources or more recent mid-IR lasers. This nonlinear generation is mainly based on parametric processes which allows extreme spectral broadening of pump lasers (i.e., supercontinuum generation) occurring with confined propagation in optical waveguides or fibers. High coherence and spectral power density over an ultra-broad spectral range are the main attractive features of these nonlinear optical devices with modes of operation from quasi-continuous wave to high-repetition-rate ultrashort pulsed sources, thus opening new prospects for remote sensing applications. An abundance of molecules has absorption features in this mid-IR "molecular fingerprint" region, in particular most of pollutants and greenhouse gases emitted from human activity with significant influence on air quality, as well as on the carbon cycle and global climate change. The absorption cross-sections of such gases are typically higher, by at least one order of magnitude, in the mid-IR compared to the near-infrared region.

This Special Issue of the journal Applied Sciences entitled “Mid-Infrared Supercontinuum Sources: Materials, Waveguides and Applications” aims to cover recent advances in the design and development of mid-infrared broadband continuum sources—from architectures to applications, including theoretical and experimental contributions.

Dr. Bertrand Kibler
Prof. Frederic Smektala
Guest Editors

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