Yun S H, Boudoux C, Tearney G J, Bouma B E
Harvard Medical School and Wellman Laboratories for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 50 Blossom Street, BAR 718, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
Opt Lett. 2003 Oct 15;28(20):1981-3. doi: 10.1364/ol.28.001981.
Ultrahigh-speed tuning of an extended-cavity semiconductor laser is demonstrated. The laser resonator comprises a unidirectional fiber-optic ring, a semiconductor optical amplifier as the gain medium, and a novel scanning filter based on a polygonal scanner. Variable tuning rates up to 1150 nm/ms (15.7-kHz repetition frequency) are demonstrated over a 70-nm wavelength span centered at 1.32 microm. This tuning rate is more than an order of magnitude faster than previously demonstrated and is facilitated in part by self-frequency shifting in the semiconductor optical amplifier. The instantaneous linewidth of the source is <0.1 nm for 9-mW cw output power and a low spontaneous-emission background of -80 dB.
展示了扩展腔半导体激光器的超高速调谐。激光谐振器包括一个单向光纤环形腔、作为增益介质的半导体光放大器以及基于多边形扫描仪的新型扫描滤波器。在以1.32微米为中心的70纳米波长范围内，展示了高达1150纳米/毫秒（15.7千赫兹重复频率）的可变调谐速率。该调谐速率比之前展示的快一个数量级以上，部分得益于半导体光放大器中的自频移。对于9毫瓦的连续波输出功率和 -80分贝的低自发辐射背景，光源的瞬时线宽小于0.1纳米。
