Visible Continuum Generation in Air-Silica Microstructure Optical Fibers with Anomalous Dispersion at 800 nm

We experimentally demonstrate for the first time that air-silica microstructure optical fibers can exhibit anomalous dispersion at visible wavelengths. We exploit this feature in order to generate an optical continuum 550 THz in width, extending from the violet to the infrared, by propagating pulses of 100-fs duration and kilowatt peak powers through a microstructure fiber near the zero-dispersion wavelength.