用于飞秒激光脉冲的声光调制器系统。

Acousto-optic modulator system for femtosecond laser pulses.

作者信息

Zeng Shaoqun, Bi Kun, Xue Songchao, Liu Yujing, Lv Xiaohua, Luo Qingming

机构信息

Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China.

出版信息

Rev Sci Instrum. 2007 Jan;78(1):015103. doi: 10.1063/1.2409868.

DOI:10.1063/1.2409868

PMID:17503942

Abstract

Femtosecond laser pulses have made a revolution in multiphoton excitation microscopy, micromachining, and optical storage for their unprecedented high peak power. However, modulation of their intensity with acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is frustrated by dispersion which results in a significant stretch in pulse width. Here we report a scheme composed of two acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) to modulate the intensity of the femtosecond laser pulses with simultaneous compensation for the temporal dispersion. With commercial AODs, we demonstrated such an AOM system for the femtosecond laser pulses with overall transmission efficiency of around 80%. The pulse width of the exit beam is 115-177 fs for an input pulse of 110 fs, across the wavelength range of 720-920 nm when the temporal dispersion compensation is optimally tuned at 800 nm. The fluorescence intensity in a two-photon microscopy experiment performed using this system increased 5.5-fold over that of the uncompensated AOM.

摘要

飞秒激光脉冲凭借其前所未有的高峰值功率，在多光子激发显微镜、微加工和光存储领域引发了一场革命。然而，利用声光调制器（AOM）对其强度进行调制时，会受到色散的影响，导致脉冲宽度显著展宽。在此，我们报告一种由两个声光偏转器（AOD）组成的方案，用于调制飞秒激光脉冲的强度，同时补偿时间色散。利用商用AOD，我们展示了这样一种用于飞秒激光脉冲的AOM系统，其总传输效率约为80%。当在800nm处对时间色散补偿进行最佳调谐时，对于110fs的输入脉冲，出射光束的脉冲宽度在720 - 920nm波长范围内为115 - 177fs。使用该系统进行的双光子显微镜实验中的荧光强度比未补偿的AOM提高了5.5倍。