Picosecond pulses from wavelength-swept continuous-wave Fourier domain mode-locked lasers

Christoph M. Eigenwillig, Wolfgang Wieser, Sebastian Todor, Benjamin R. Biedermann, Thomas Klein, Christian Jirauschek and Robert Huber ()
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Christoph M. Eigenwillig: Lehrstuhl für BioMolekulare Optik, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig–Maximilians-Universität München, Oettingenstrasse 67, 80538 Munich, Germany
Wolfgang Wieser: Lehrstuhl für BioMolekulare Optik, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig–Maximilians-Universität München, Oettingenstrasse 67, 80538 Munich, Germany
Sebastian Todor: Institute for Nanoelectronics, Technische Universität München, Arcisstrasse 21, 80333 Munich, Germany
Benjamin R. Biedermann: Lehrstuhl für BioMolekulare Optik, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig–Maximilians-Universität München, Oettingenstrasse 67, 80538 Munich, Germany
Thomas Klein: Lehrstuhl für BioMolekulare Optik, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig–Maximilians-Universität München, Oettingenstrasse 67, 80538 Munich, Germany
Christian Jirauschek: Institute for Nanoelectronics, Technische Universität München, Arcisstrasse 21, 80333 Munich, Germany
Robert Huber: Lehrstuhl für BioMolekulare Optik, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig–Maximilians-Universität München, Oettingenstrasse 67, 80538 Munich, Germany

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Ultrafast lasers have a crucial function in many fields of science; however, up to now, high-energy pulses directly from compact, efficient and low-power semiconductor lasers are not available. Therefore, we introduce a new approach based on temporal compression of the continuous-wave, wavelength-swept output of Fourier domain mode-locked lasers, where a narrowband optical filter is tuned synchronously to the round-trip time of light in a kilometre-long laser cavity. So far, these rapidly swept lasers enabled orders-of-magnitude speed increase in optical coherence tomography. Here we report on the generation of ~60–70 ps pulses at 390 kHz repetition rate. As energy is stored optically in the long-fibre delay line and not as population inversion in the laser-gain medium, high-energy pulses can now be generated directly from a low-power, compact semiconductor-based oscillator. Our theory predicts subpicosecond pulses with this new technique in the future.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2870

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