Mid-IR supercontinuum pumped by femtosecond pulses from thulium doped all-fiber amplifier.

We present a mid-infrared (mid-IR) supercontinuum (SC) light source pumped by femtosecond pulses from a thulium doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) at 2 μm. An octave-spanning spectrum from 1.1 to 3.7 μm with an average power of 253 mW has been obtained from a single mode ZBLAN fiber. Spectral flatness of 10 dB over a 1390 nm range has been obtained in the mid-IR region from 1940 - 3330 nm. It is resulted from the enhanced self phase modulation process in femtosecond regime. The all-fiber configuration makes such broadband coherent source a compact candidate for various applications.