Mashayekh Alireza Tabatabaei, Klos Thomas, Geuzebroek Douwe, Klein Edwin, Veenstra Theo, Büscher Martin, Merget Florian, Leisching Patrick, Witzens Jeremy
Opt Express. 2021 Mar 15;29(6):8635-8653. doi: 10.1364/OE.417245.
We implement a multi-color laser engine with silicon nitride photonic integrated circuit technology, that combines four fluorophore excitation wavelengths (405 nm, 488 nm, 561 nm, 640 nm) and splits them with variable attenuation among two output fibers used for different microscope imaging modalities. With the help of photonic integrated circuit technology, the volume of the multi-color laser engine's optics is reduced by two orders of magnitude compared to its commercially available discrete optics counterpart. Light multiplexing is implemented by means of a directional coupler based device and variable optical attenuation as well as fiber switching with thermally actuated Mach-Zehnder interferometers. Total insertion losses from lasers to output fibers are in the order of 6 dB at 488 nm, 561 nm, and 640 nm. Higher insertion losses at 405 nm can be further improved on. In addition to the system level results, spectrally resolved performance has been characterized for each of the developed devices.
我们采用氮化硅光子集成电路技术实现了一种多色激光引擎，该引擎结合了四种荧光团激发波长（405纳米、488纳米、561纳米、640纳米），并在用于不同显微镜成像模式的两根输出光纤之间以可变衰减进行分光。借助光子集成电路技术，多色激光引擎的光学器件体积与其市售分立光学器件相比减小了两个数量级。光复用通过基于定向耦合器的器件、可变光衰减以及热驱动马赫-曾德尔干涉仪进行光纤切换来实现。从激光器到输出光纤的总插入损耗在488纳米、561纳米和640纳米处约为6分贝。405纳米处较高的插入损耗还有进一步改进的空间。除了系统级结果外，还对每个已开发器件的光谱分辨性能进行了表征。
