The use of a supercontinuum light source for the characterization of passive fiber optic components

In this article, we report the application of a commercial supercontinuum light source for testing fiber optics components in a broad optical range. We demonstrate that this kind of light can be successfully used to measure the parameters of a number of passive fiber components, such as fiber Bragg gratings, fiber couplers, wavelength division multiplexers, and fibered isolators. We also show that near the double wavelength of the pulsed laser used to pump the nonlinear fiber generating the supercontinuum, the standard optical spectrum analyzers demonstrate the false spectral peak that affects the test results and that using a simple low-cost monochromator placed at the supercontinuum source output permits the elimination of this peak. The results of experiments related to the characterization of passive fiber devices in the broad optical range, from 1 μm to more than 2 μm, are discussed in detail as possible applications of the proposed technique.