Inaki Aporta Litago
University of Cantabria, Santander 39740, Spain
Title: Broadband tunable SESAM-based mode-locked fiber laser source for parametric generation in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) applied to CARS microscopy.
Biography
Biography: Inaki Aporta Litago
Abstract
A broadband tunable pulsed fiber laser for parametric generation in PCF applied to CARS microscopy is presented. The Fig.1 shows the experimental set-up of the ytterbium-based oscillator. The laser (seed) emitts a stable pulsed signal in a 40 nm range as is depicted in Fig. 2, when the pump reaches the threshold of 73 mW. This source has an output power which varies between 1.5 to 3.5 mW (depending on the wavelength emission), a repetition rate of 3.5 MHz, a 3-dB spectral width of 80 pm and a pulse duration of 25 ps. Furthermore, the laser structure allows self-started mode-locking at any wavelength in the whole tuning range and the continous tunability of the wavelength emission with no need of polarization control. Due to the source capability of being tuned with a precision of 0.01 nm and that is free of polarization control thanks to the use of a slow-axis in-line polarizer, the laser source becomes ideal for optical parametric generation in PCF through Four-Wave Mixing (FWM). This non-linear process allows generating the Anti-Stokes component, which implies a frequency difference with the seed that matches with a concrete CARS resonance. This way, owing to the wavelength tunability of the source, the desired frequency difference could be precisely adjusted to match the CARS resonance of interest. Moreover, this laser structre is well-suited for communication, sensing and non-linear applications