Fig. 1. Temporal and spectral distributions of the input and output recorded after 120 m of propagation for pump pulses with different central wavelengths in different fibers: PCF1, PCF2, PCF3. (a) λ_C=1.06 μm; (b) λ_C=1.31 μm; (c) λ_C=1.55 μm

Fig. 2. Evolution of the output spectra FWHM Δλ_FWHM and the corresponding axial resolution of OCT systems l_r for pump pulses with different central wavelengths in corresponding different fibers after a distance of 120 m versus the soliton factor N in the range from 55 to 95. (a) Output spectra FWHM Δλ_FWHM; (b) corresponding axial resolution of OCT systems l_r

Fig. 3. Temporal and spectral distributions of the output recorded after 180 m of propagation in PCF3 for different pump pulse peak powers. (a) P₀=4 W; (b) P₀=8 W; (c) P₀=15 W; (d) P₀=18 W; (e) P₀=20 W

Fig. 4. Evolution of the output 10 dB bandwidth Δλ_{10 dB} and flatness S_Flat after a distance of 180 m in PCF3 versus pump pulse peak power P₀ in the range from 2 to 22.5 W, in which the blue vertical dot-and-dash line represents the preferred results

Fig. 5. Temporal and spectral distributions of the output recorded after 180 m of propagation in PCF3 for different pump pulse widths. (a) T_FWHM=0.6 ps; (b) T_FWHM=1.0 ps; (c) T_FWHM=1.4 ps; (d) T_FWHM=1.8 ps; (e) T_FWHM=2.2 ps

Fig. 6. Evolution of the output 10 dB bandwidth and flatness after a distance of 180 m PCF3 versus initial pulse width in the range from 0.5 to 2.4 ps, in which the blue vertical dot-and-dash line represents the preferred results

Fig. 7. Distribution of the output spectra recorded after 120 m of propagation in PCF3 for four pump pulses with different initial parameters. (a) P₀=14 W, T_FWHM=2 ps; (b) P₀=22 W, T_FWHM=2 ps; (c) P₀=14 W, T_FWHM=1 ps

Fig. 8. Evolution of the output 10 dB bandwidth and the corresponding flatness in 80~180 m for pump pulses with different shapes in PCF3 versus fiber length in the range from 0 to 180 m. (a) Output 10 dB bandwidth; (b) corresponding flatness

Table 1. Characteristic parameters of the three PCFs for medical applications