Effective three-wave-mixing picture and first Born approximation for femtosecond supercontinua from microstructured fibers

The theory of supercontinuum generation in microstructured fibers is based on notions of soliton fission and subsequent dispersive wave radiation. In bulk media, in contrast, the paradigm of effective three-wave mixing (ETWM) proves useful for understanding the supercontinuum spectral properties and revealing the dynamics within the high-intensity core of the collapsing filament. Previously, it has been shown that the bulk theory applies accurately even to so-called glass-membrane fibers in which the guided light is free to diffract in one dimension. In the same spirit, this work extends that result and brings the fiber and bulk supercontinuum approaches closer together. Specifically, we demonstrate that the ETWM paradigm can be modified for fibers, where it provides an accurate analytic description of the supercontinuum component due to dispersive waves.