We present detailed studies of the coherence properties of an ultrabroadband supercontinuum, enabled by a comprehensive approach involving continuous-wave laser sources to independently probe both the amplitude and phase noise quadratures across the entire spectrum. The continuum coherently spans more than 1.5 octaves, supporting Hz-level comparison of ultrastable lasers at 698 nm and 1.54 $\mu$m. We present a complete numerical simulation of the accumulated comb coherence in the limit of many pulses, in contrast to the single-pulse level, with systematic experimental verification. The experiment and numerical simulations reveal the presence of quantum-seeded broadband amplitude noise without phase coherence degradation, including the discovery of a dependence of the supercontinuum coherence on the fiber fractional Raman gain.

• Received 2 February 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.84.011806