PAD - Patterned Alternating Dispersion ™ 

​The SuperLight Photonics broadband pulse generation relies on the Kerr effect, where short, high-energy pulses propagate through a waveguide integrated into our chip.

The process begins with a narrowband pulse, which undergoes spectral broadening as it interacts with the waveguide material. However, after a certain propagation length, this spectral broadening saturates, a phenomenon known as spectral stagnation.

Beyond this point, further broadening can only be achieved by increasing the input pulse power. Since this approach scales poorly with power, traditional systems require significantly higher pulse energies, making them less efficient.

 

We are uniquely able to change interaction in the waveguide (called dispersion) by alternating two commonly used methods: normal dispersion (ND) and anomalous dispersion (AD).

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Traditional approaches can only use one or the other, and as these two methods work in exactly the opposite direction they can compensate for each other. By alternating both dispersions we stretch and compress the pulse multiple times, with spectral broadening as a result, without requiring as much energy as traditional solutions.

 

We have coined this mechanism PAD - Patterned Alternating Dispersion ™. In other words, PAD is a highly efficient way to create a broadband spectrum!

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Compared to traditional supercontinuum lasers, our process is much more efficient and allows us to use substantially lower input powers, making our products smaller, lighter and easier to use.

 

SuperLight Photonics is getting wideband lasers out of the lab, into the field.