In an example, a mode-locked laser includes a resonator cavity having a saturable absorber, a hollow core fiber coupled to the saturable absorber, and an optical amplifier optically coupled between the hollow core fiber and an output coupler. The mode-locked laser further includes a first pump laser and a wavelength division multiplexer coupled to the first pump laser. The wavelength division multiplexer is configured to couple light from the first pump laser into the resonator cavity to pump the optical amplifier. The mode-locked laser is configured to generate a pulse waveform at a repetition rate of approximately 100 MHz to 200 MHz.

Methods, apparatus, and systems comprising a fiber-coupled laser and time-varying beam characteristics. A laser may generate an optical beam that is launched into one or more lengths of fiber, at least one of which comprises a confinement region that is optically coupled to an output. A perturbation device may modulate, through action upon the one or more lengths of fiber, a beam characteristic over a time period during which the laser is energized. A controller may cause the perturbation device to act upon the one or more lengths of fiber to impart a time-averaged beam characteristic and/or to induce a continuous variation in one or more beam characteristics during system use. A process monitor may sense a metric external to the optical system, and a feedback signal from the process monitor may be coupled into the controller. Dynamic beam characteristics may be modulated based on the feedback signal.

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 method and a system are provided to simultaneously generate blue-shifted and red-shifted femtosecond light sources with tunable spectral peak location and bandwidth, by controlling the input condition (chirp/spectrum) of a fiber-optic nonlinear propagation. The system comprises (A) a seed source, (B) a driving current controller to regulate the spectrum of the seed source, (C) a dispersion controller to control the chirp and pulse width of the seed source, (D) a fiber-optic spectral conversion module to shape and broaden the laser spectrum via fiber-optic nonlinear processes, and (E) a spectral selection module to filter out the required wave packets. With the simultaneous uses of the driving current controller and the dispersion controller, the light sources feature continuously tunable spectral peak with (1) a relatively constant output pulse energy or (2) a tunable spectral bandwidth at a specific peak location.

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) systems configured to generate and amplify multi-pulses are described. The nonlinear interaction of pulses can generate a multiple pulse pack with a dense time separation between pulses. Reducing or eliminating the nonlinear interaction can be provided by spectrally and/or temporally splitting pulses in the chirped amplification system.

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 pulse configurable laser unit is an environmentally stable, mechanically robust, and maintenance-free ultrafast laser source for low-energy industrial, medical and analytical applications. The key features of the laser unit are a reliable, self-starting fiber oscillator and an integrated programmable pulse shaper. The combination of these components allows taking full advantage of the laser's broad bandwidth ultrashort pulse duration and arbitrary waveform generation via spectral phase manipulation. The source can routinely deliver near-TL, sub-60 fs pulses with megawatt-level peak power. The output pulse dispersion can be tuned to pre-compensate phase distortions down the line as well as to optimize the pulse profile for a specific application.

A diagnostic system is provided with a plurality of semiconductor light emitters, each configured to generate an optical beam, and a beam combiner to generate a multiplexed optical beam. An optical fiber or waveguide communicates at least a portion of the multiplexed optical beam to form an output beam, wherein the output beam is pulsed. A filter, coupled to at least one of a lens and a mirror to receive at least a portion of the output beam, forms an output light. A beam splitter splits the light into a sample arm and a reference arm and directs at least a portion of the sample arm light to a sample. A detection system is configured to receive from the sample at least a portion of reflected sample light, to generate a sample detector output, and to use a lock-in technique with the pulsed output beam.

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.

The present disclosure relates to an optical waveguide system. The system may include a first waveguide having a core-guide and a material portion surrounding and encasing the core-guide. The core-guide enables a core-guide mode for an optical signal travelling through the core-guide. A second waveguide forms a lossy waveguide on an outer surface of the first waveguide. The construction of the second waveguide is such as to achieve a desired coupling between the core-guide mode and the lossy waveguide to control an energy level of the optical signal travelling through the core-guide.