Visible to near-infrared supercontinuum generation in yttrium orthosilicate bulk crystal and ion implanted planar waveguide

This paper reports on the supercontinuum generation in yttrium orthosilicate bulk crystal and 6-mm-long ion implanted planar waveguide. The waveguide is fabricated by 6 MeV oxygen ions implantation with fluence of 5 × 10(14) ions/cm(2) at room temperature. The yttrium orthosilicate bulk crystal and waveguide are pumped using a mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser with a center wavelength of 800 nm. The generated broadest supercontinuum spans 720 nm (at −30 dB points) from 380 to 1100 nm in bulk crystal and 510 nm (at −30 dB points) from 490 to 1000 nm in ion implanted waveguide, respectively. Compared to the bulk crystal, the ion implanted waveguide requires almost three orders of magnitude lower pump power to achieve a similar level of broadening. The supercontinuum is generated in the normal dispersion regime and exhibits a relatively smooth spectral shape. Our research findings indicate that ion implantation is an efficient method to produce waveguide in yttrium orthosilicate crystal for low-threshold supercontinuum generation.