Akinetic swept source with adjustable coherence length for SS-OCT

Radu F. Stancu; David A. Jackson; Adrian Gh. Podoleanu

doi:10.1117/12.2077640

2 March 2015 Akinetic swept source with adjustable coherence length for SS-OCT

Radu F. Stancu, David A. Jackson, Adrian Gh. Podoleanu

Proceedings Volume 9312, Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedicine XIX; 931238 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2077640
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

An electronically controlled optical swept source (SS) at 1550 nm using mode locking in a dispersive ring cavity is described. Active mode-locking was achieved by directly modulating the current of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) used as a gain medium. In the static regime, parameters such as linewidth, tuning bandwidth and contrast were measured, while the axial range was determined dynamically. Two types of fiber, dispersion compensation and single mode, are employed in the laser ring cavity. It is demonstrated that the relative lengths of the two types of fiber have little effect on the linewidth, while more control on the linewidth is obtained via the frequency of the signal driving the SOA. Linewidths less than 60 pm and over 1 nm were measured in the static regime while driving the SOA at 50 – 500 MHz. The narrowest linewidths were achieved where the proportion of dispersion compensation fiber in the cavity is 80- 90% of the total length. The optical source is developed to respond to the demands of OCT applications in general as well as address the need for low cost tunable lasers for configurations where a large tuning bandwidths and long coherence length might not be necessary.

Citation Download Citation

Radu F. Stancu, David A. Jackson, and Adrian Gh. Podoleanu "Akinetic swept source with adjustable coherence length for SS-OCT", Proc. SPIE 9312, Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedicine XIX, 931238 (2 March 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2077640

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available