Open AccessSpectral control of dispersion‐tuned wavelength‐swept laser
Author(s) -
Takubo Yuya,
Yamashita Shinji
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
electronics letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.375
H-Index - 146
ISSN - 1350-911X
DOI - 10.1049/el.2016.3582
Subject(s) - optics , materials science , laser , wavelength , sweep frequency response analysis , wideband , dispersion (optics) , modulation (music) , lasing threshold , frequency modulation , physics , radio frequency , telecommunications , acoustics , computer science
Spectral profile control method of a dispersion‐tuned fibre laser is demonstrated. A dispersion‐tuned fibre laser is a fast and widely tunable wavelength‐swept laser without mechanical tunable filters. The lasing centre wavelength is tuned by changing the active mode‐locking modulation frequency to that of the corresponding operating wavelength matching the fundamental repetition rate of the cavity. The sweep spectra profile can be controlled by modulation frequency sweep. By applying a pre‐calculated modulation frequency sweep, the flatness of the wavelength‐swept spectral profile can be improved. We applied the dispersion‐tuned wavelength‐swept laser to a spectral‐domain optical coherence tomography system as a wideband light source and successfully obtained OCT images. The image resolution is enhanced by applying a nonlinear modulation frequency sweep to the laser instead of linear modulation frequency sweep. The potential of the proposed dispersion‐tuned wavelength‐swept laser as a spectrally flexible laser source is demonstrated.