Optical frequency up-conversion by supercontinuum-free widely-tunable fiber-optic Cherenkov radiation

Spectrally-isolated narrowband Cherenkov radiation from commercial nonlinear photonic crystal fibers is demonstrated as an ultrafast optical source with a visible tuning range of 485-690 nm, which complementarily extends the near-infrared tuning range of 690-1020 nm from the corresponding femtosecond Ti:sapphire pump laser. Pump-to-signal conversion efficiency routinely surpasses 10%, enabling multirnilliwatt visible output across the entire tuning range. Appropriate selection of fiber parameters and pumping conditions efficiently suppresses the supercontinuum generation typically associated with Cherenkov radiation.