Disclosed is a system for generating wavelength-tunable, ultra-short light pulses within the visible or infrared light spectrum. The system includes an injection module including a light source and a wavelength-tunable spectral filter. The light source is suitable for generating short light pulses, having a duration measured in nanoseconds, within an emission spectrum having a spectral width of several tens of nanometers to several hundred nanometers. The spectral filter has a spectral width between 250 pm and 3 nm and is suitable for spectrally and temporally filtering the short light pulses such that the injection module generates wavelength-tunable, spectrally filtered, ultra-short light pulses. The system also includes at least one optical amplifier suitable for generating wavelength-tunable, ultra-short, amplified pulses based on the wavelength of the spectral filter.

An apparatus can be provided which can include a laser arrangement which can be configured to provide a laser radiation, and can include an optical cavity. The optical cavity can include a dispersive optical first arrangement which can be configured to receive and disperse at least one first electro-magnetic radiation so as to provide at least one second electro-magnetic radiation. Such cavity can also include an active optical modulator second arrangement which can be configured to receive and modulate the at least one second radiation so as to provide at least one third electro-magnetic radiation. The optical cavity can further include a dispersive optical third arrangement which can be configured to receive and disperse at least one third electro-magnetic radiation so as to provide at least one fourth electro-magnetic radiation. For example, actions by the first, second and third arrangements can cause a spectral filtering of the fourth electro-magnetic radiation(s) relative to the first electro-magnetic radiation(s). The laser radiation can be associated with the fourth radiation(s), and a wavelength of the laser radiation can be controlled by the spectral filtering caused by the actions by the first, second and third arrangements.

A microstructured optical fiber for generating supercontinuum light. The optical fiber includes a core and a cladding region surrounding the core. The optical fiber includes a first fiber length section, a second fiber length section as well as an intermediate fiber length section between said first and second fiber length sections. The first fiber length section has a core with a first characteristic core diameter larger than about 7 ?m. The second fiber length section has a core with a second characteristic core diameter, smaller than said first characteristic core diameter. The intermediate length section of the optical fiber includes a core which is tapered from said first characteristic core diameter to the second characteristic core diameter over a tapered length. Also, a supercontinuum light source including an optical fiber and a pump light source.

This disclosed subject matter allows short pulses with high peak powers to be obtained from seed pulses generated by a gain-switched diode. The gain-switched diode provides a highly stable source for optical systems such as nonlinear microscopy. The disclosed system preserves the ability to generate pulses at arbitrary repetition rates, or even pulses on demand, which can help reduce sample damage in microscopy experiments or control deliberate damage in material processing.

A spectroscopy system includes a light source having an input light source, including semiconductor diodes generating an input beam with a wavelength shorter than 2.5 microns. Cladding-pumped fiber amplifiers receive the input beam and form an amplified optical beam having a spectral width. A nonlinear element broadens the spectral width of the amplified optical beam to 100 nm or more through a nonlinear effect forming an output beam that is pulsed. A filter is coupled to at least one of a lens and a mirror that receives the output beam and delivers the filtered output beam to a sample. A detection system includes detectors configured to receive the output beam reflected or transmitted from the sample. The detection system is configured to use a lock-in technique with the pulsed output beam and the spectroscopy system is adapted to detect chemicals in the sample.

The invention relates to a supercontinuum light source comprising a microstructured optical fiber and a pump light source. The microstructured optical fiber comprises a core and a cladding region surrounding the core, as well as a first fiber length section, a second fiber length section and an intermediate fiber length section between said first and second fiber length sections. The first fiber length section comprises a core with a first characteristic core diameter. The second fiber length section comprises a core with a second characteristic core diameter, smaller than said first characteristic core diameter, where said second characteristic core diameter is substantially constant along said second fiber length section. The intermediate length section of the optical fiber comprises a core which is tapered from said first characteristic core diameter to said second characteristic core diameter over a tapered length.

A pulsed fiber generator is configured with a unidirectional ring waveguide configured to emit a train of pulses. The ring waveguide includes multiple fiber amplifiers, chirping fiber components coupled to respective outputs of first and second fiber amplifiers, and multiple spectral filters coupled to respective outputs of the chirping components. The filters have respective spectral band passes centered around different central wavelengths so as to provide leakage of light along the ring cavity in response to nonlinear processes induced in the ring cavity. The pulse generator operates at a preliminary stage during which it is configured to develop a pitch to a signal, and at a steady stage during which it is configured to output a train of pulses through an output coupler at most once per a single round trip of the signal.

The present invention relates to a single optical fiber-based multi-ring laser beam device, and a manufacturing method therefor. The present invention enables a laser beam to be emitted in a single optical fiber through at least two stair-type processing methods by allowing the laser beam to be radially spread out in a lengthwise direction of the optical fiber in two or more ring forms. Therefore, if two ring-form light profiles are used instead of one ring-form light profile, an energy burden on a glass tube is reduced because of an energy dispersion effect such that a safe treatment effect can be provided without the risk of damage to the glass tube. In addition, according to one embodiment of the present invention, an unnecessary process is removed by forming two rings in one optical fiber instead of using two optical fibers, such that advantages of simple manufacturing and cost reduction are provided. Furthermore, according to another embodiment of the present invention, two or more ring-form light profiles are provided in one optical fiber such that an effect of enabling a glass tube size to be reduced is provided.

When a soliton and a dispersive pulse propagate in an optical fiber, they can interact via cross-phase modulation, which occurs when one pulse modulates the refractive index experienced by the other pulse. Cross-phase modulation causes each pulse to shift in wavelength by an amount proportional to the time delay between the pulses. Changing the time delay between the pulses changes the wavelength shift of each pulse. This make it possible to produce pulses whose output wavelengths can be tuned over large ranges, e.g. hundreds of nm, in a time as short as the pulse repetition period of the laser (e.g., at rates of megahertz or gigahertz). Such a laser requires no moving parts, providing high reliability. The laser's optical path can be made entirely of optical fiber, providing high efficiency with low size, weight, and power consumption.

By compensating polarization mode-dispersion as well chromatic dispersion in photonic crystal fiber pulse compressors, high pulse energies can be obtained from all-fiber chirped pulse amplification systems. By inducing third-order dispersion in fiber amplifiers via self-phase modulation, the third-order chromatic dispersion from bulk grating pulse compressors can be compensated and the pulse quality of hybrid fiber/bulk chirped pulse amplification systems can be improved. Finally, by amplifying positively chirped pulses in negative dispersion fiber amplifiers, a low noise wavelength tunable seed source via anti-Stokes frequency shifting can be obtained.