206 MHz fully stabilized all-PM dispersion-managed figure-9 fiber laser comb.

High-repetition-rate optical frequency combs are useful for precision spectroscopy because of their high power per comb mode, but conventional high-repetition-rate lasers do not have a broad enough spectrum. In this study, a fully stabilized polarization-maintaining figure-9 mode-locked fiber laser with a high repetition rate of 206 MHz and a broad spectrum was demonstrated by employing simultaneous control of cavity dispersion and length. The laser exhibited a 3 dB spectral bandwidth of 88 nm and a compressed pulse width of 66 fs. Additionally, fCEO and frep phase locking were implemented, resulting in low (0.21 rad) in-loop carrier-envelope-offset frequency phase noise. To the best of our knowledge, this is the widest spectrum bandwidth and shortest pulse duration directly obtained from an all-PM figure-9 fiber laser oscillator to date. The combination of high repetition rate and broad spectral range makes this system very useful for a wide range of applications, especially in the field of precision spectroscopy.

Background-reduced spectral peak generation using a nonlinear loop mirror with a gas cell.

Spectral peaking in an optical fiber is a useful phenomenon for comb mode filtering and wavelength standards. However, for highly sensitive spectroscopic applications, it is important to suppress the pedestal components. Here we propose and demonstrate pedestal-suppressed spectral peak generation using a nonlinear fiber loop mirror with a molecular gas cell. The physical mechanism and fundamental properties were investigated numerically, and the output characteristics were examined experimentally. Almost background-free spectral peaks were generated successfully in the 1.65-µm wavelength range using a CH4 gas cell. The maximum signal-to-background ratio was more than 30 dB. Stable operation without any feedback control was achieved. It is expected that the proposed method is useful for highly sensitive spectroscopic applications.

Frequency modes filtering of spectral peaks in optical frequency combs through molecular gas absorption and nonlinear polarization rotation.

Spectral peak generation is a recently reported phenomenon that narrow spectral dips of the optical spectrum turn into sharp peaks as they propagate through nonlinear optical fibers. We demonstrated the nonlinear polarization rotation-based spectral peak mode filtering to increase the signal-to-background ratio (SBR). The spectral peaks with almost constant frequency separation were generated from the femtosecond pulses absorbed by the CH4 gas through the highly nonlinear fiber. The generated spectral peaks were filtered through the polarizing beam splitter by the nonlinear polarization rotation, and the SBR was improved from 9 dB to ∼20 dB. The spectral peak generation phenomenon and the mode filtering were numerically confirmed by solving the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. The demonstrated method can generate strong comb modes with wide frequency spacing which are useful for highly sensitive environmental gas sensing spectroscopy. The wavelengths of the spectral peaks are fixed by the absorption spectra of the used gas cells. Therefore, this method can generate high quality spectral peaks of any wavelengths with wide spectral ranges through proper combinations of gas cells.

Spectral peaking in an ultrashort-pulse fiber laser oscillator with a molecular gas cell.

Here we report the demonstration of a spectral peaking phenomenon in a fiber laser oscillator. An HCN gas cell was inserted in an ultrashort-pulse Er-doped fiber laser with single-wall carbon nanotubes. Sech2-shaped ultrashort pulses with intense multiple sharp spectral peaks were stably generated. When the generated pulses were coupled into highly nonlinear fiber, enhanced multiple spectral peaks were generated by periodical spectral peaking in the optical fiber. The characteristics and physical mechanism of spectral peaking in the fiber laser were investigated via numerical simulations. As the magnitude of absorption was increased, the magnitude of the generated spectral peaks increased almost exponentially. It was clarified that the spectral peaks were generated through the accumulation of filtering components generated in each round trip.

Controllable, intense spectral peaking with a spectral filter and optical fiber.

Nonlinear fiber effects are useful for controlling optical spectra in a wide variety of ways. Here, we report the demonstration of freely controllable, intense spectral peaking using a high-resolution spectral filter with a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator and nonlinear fibers. A large enhancement of spectral peak components by more than a factor of 10 was achieved by employing phase modulation. Multiple spectral peaks with an extremely high signal-to-background ratio (SBR) of up to 30 dB were generated simultaneously in a wide wavelength range. It was shown that part of the energy from the whole pulse spectrum was concentrated at the filtering part and constructed the intense spectral peaks. This technique is very useful for highly sensitive spectroscopic applications and comb mode selection.

Signal-to-background ratio and lateral resolution in deep tissue imaging by optical coherence microscopy in the 1700 nm spectral band.

We quantitatively investigated the image quality in deep tissue imaging with optical coherence microscopy (OCM) in the 1700 nm spectral band, in terms of the signal-to-background ratio (SBR) and lateral resolution. In this work, to demonstrate the benefits of using the 1700 nm spectral band for OCM imaging of brain samples, we compared the imaging quality of OCM en-face images obtained at the same position by using a hybrid 1300 nm/1700 nm spectral domain (SD) OCM system with shared sample and reference arms. By observing a reflective resolution test target through a 1.5 mm-thick tissue phantom, which had a similar scattering coefficient to brain cortex tissue, we confirmed that 1700 nm OCM achieved an SBR about 6-times higher than 1300 nm OCM, although the lateral resolution of the both OCMs was similarly degraded with the increase of the imaging depth. Finally, we also demonstrated high-contrast deep tissue imaging of a mouse brain at a depth up to 1.8 mm by using high-resolution 1700 nm SD-OCM.

Investigation of dispersion-managed, polarization-maintaining Er-doped figure-nine ultrashort-pulse fiber laser.

Figure-nine fiber lasers can realize all-polarization-maintaining, self-started, highly stable mode-locked laser sources, and are very attractive for applications such as optical frequency combs, metrology, etc. In this work, we investigated a dispersion-managed, polarization-maintaining, Er-doped, ultrashort-pulse figure-nine fiber laser both experimentally and numerically. Stable, self-started, passive mode-locking operation was achieved in a wide net cavity dispersion region, covering the soliton, stretched pulse, and dissipative soliton mode-locking regimes. A 132 fs ultrashort pulse with spectral width of 46 nm was obtained in the stretched pulse mode-locking regime. The initial mode-locking process and dynamics inside the cavity, in addition to the fundamental characteristics of the output pulses, were examined via numerical analysis. Owing to the asymmetric configuration, the propagation behaviors were different between the two counter-propagation directions. It was found that a large breathing had already started before the passive mode-locking point in stretched pulse mode-locking operation. Intense overshoots were also observed at the beginning of passive mode-locking. Numerical results were almost in agreement with the experimental ones.

High-spatial-resolution deep tissue imaging with spectral-domain optical coherence microscopy in the 1700-nm spectral band.

We present three-dimensional (3-D) high-resolution spectral-domain optical coherence microscopy (SD-OCM) by using a supercontinuum (SC) fiber laser source with 300-nm spectral bandwidth (full-width at half-maximum) in the 1700-nm spectral band. By using low-coherence interferometry with SC light and a confocal detection scheme, we realized lateral and axial resolutions of 3.4 and 3.8 µm in tissue (n = 1.38), respectively. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest 3-D spatial resolution reported among those of Fourier-domain optical coherence imaging techniques in the 1700-nm spectral band. In our SD-OCM, to enhance the imaging depth, a full-range method was implemented, which suppressed the formation of a coherent ghost image and allowed us to set the zero-delay position inside the samples. We demonstrated the 3-D high-resolution imaging capability of 1700-nm SD-OCM through the measurement of an interference signal from a mirror surface and imaging of a single 200-nm polystyrene bead and a pig thyroid gland. Deep tissue imaging at a depth of up to 1.8 mm was also demonstrated. This is the first demonstration of 3-D high-resolution SD-OCM in the 1700-nm spectral band.

Excitation of erbium-doped nanoparticles in 1550-nm wavelength region for deep tissue imaging with reduced degradation of spatial resolution.

Rare-earth-doped nanoparticles are one of the emerging probes for bioimaging due to their visible-to-near-infrared (NIR) upconversion emission via sequential single-photon absorption at NIR wavelengths. The NIR-excited upconversion property and high photostability make this probe appealing for deep tissue imaging. So far, upconversion nanoparticles include ytterbium ions (Yb3 + ) codoped with other rare earth ions, such as erbium (Er3 + ) and thulium (Tm3 + ). In these types of upconversion nanoparticles, through energy transfer from Yb3 + excited with continuous wave light at a wavelength of 980 nm, upconversion emission of the other rare earth dopants is induced. We have found that the use of the excitation of Er3 + in the 1550-nm wavelength region allows us to perform deep tissue imaging with reduced degradation of spatial resolution. In this excitation­emission process, three and four photons of 1550-nm light are sequentially absorbed, and Er3 + emits photons in the 550- and 660-nm wavelength regions. We demonstrate that, compared with the case using 980-nm wavelength excitation, the use of 1550-nm light enables us to moderate degradation of spatial resolution in deep tissue imaging due to the lower light scattering coefficient compared with 980-nm light. We also demonstrate that live cell imaging is feasible with this 1550 nm excitation.

Axial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio in deep-tissue imaging with 1.7-µm high-resolution optical coherence tomography with an ultrabroadband laser source.

We investigated the axial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) characteristics in deep-tissue imaging by 1.7-µm optical coherence tomography (OCT) with the axial resolution of 4.3 µm in tissue. Because 1.7-µm OCT requires a light source with a spectral width of more than 300 nm full-width at half maximum to achieve such high resolution, the axial resolution in the tissue might be degraded by spectral distortion and chromatic dispersion mismatching between the sample and reference arms. In addition, degradation of the axial resolution would also lead to reduced SNR. Here, we quantitatively evaluated the degradation of the axial resolution and the resulting decrease in SNR by measuring interference signals through a lipid mixture serving as a turbid tissue phantom with large scattering and absorption coefficients. Although the axial resolution was reduced by a factor of ∼6 after passing through a 2-mm-thick tissue phantom, our result clearly showed that compensation of the dispersion mismatching allowed us to achieve an axial resolution of 4.3 µm in tissue and improve the SNR by ∼5 dB compared with the case where dispersion mismatching was not compensated. This improvement was also confirmed in the observation of a hamster's cheek pouch in a buffer solution.

Characteristics and improvement of wideband wavelength-tunable narrow-linewidth source by spectral compression in quasi-dispersion-increasing comb-profile fiber.

We investigated the characteristics and behavior of spectral compression in a quasi-dispersion-increasing comb-profile fiber (CPF). A periodical breathing behavior and sidelobe emission process in the CPF were observed in numerical analysis. Then, taking account of the numerical results, we developed an improved CPF in which the sidelobe suppression was dramatically improved to -24.2 dB while keeping a narrow spectral width of ~0.6 nm. As a seed pulse source, we developed a high-repetition-rate Er-doped ultrashort-pulse fiber laser with single-wall carbon nanotubes and used the improved CPF to realize a high-power, narrow-linewidth source with wide wavelength tunability in the 1.62-1.90 µm band.

Development of a Fiber-Optic Optical Coherence Tomography Probe for Intraocular Use.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the performance of a newly developed 23-G optical coherence tomography (OCT) probe in animal and human eyes. METHODS: The probe is a side-imaging OCT device with a scanning beam set 43° to the optical axis and a working distance of 1.5 to 2.0 mm. The performance of the OCT probe was tested during vitrectomy in porcine cadaver eyes and rabbit eyes in situ. Optical coherence tomography images of a normal retina, retinal break, optic disc, pars plicata of the ciliary body, and intraoperative surgical manipulations were recorded. The probe was also tested in a pilot study of clinical cases; intraoperative real-time OCT imaging was performed in three patients, including a 56-year-old woman with an epiretinal membrane. RESULTS: The OCT probe was able to delineate intraocular tissues, including the posterior retina, and even the most peripheral pars plicata in animal eyes. The OCT probe also successfully delineated intraoperative surgical maneuvers such as membrane peeling and the minute structures of the vortex veins, ora serrata, and vitreous incarceration in the scleral incision from the trocar with sufficient resolution in the patients. There were no complications resulting from its use. CONCLUSIONS: The ability of this new 23-G OCT probe to obtain images of intraoperative manipulations from the most peripheral tissues in animal and patient eyes suggests that it could enable surgeons to make better decisions during the course of intraocular surgery.

Optical coherence microscopy in 1700 nm spectral band for high-resolution label-free deep-tissue imaging.

Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is a label-free, high-resolution, three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) and confocal microscopy. Here, we report that the 1700-nm spectral band has the great potential to improve the imaging depth in high-resolution OCM imaging of animal tissues. Recent studies to improve the imaging depth in OCT revealed that the 1700-nm spectral band is a promising choice for imaging turbid scattering tissues due to the low attenuation of light in the wavelength region. In this study, we developed high-resolution OCM by using a high-power supercontinuum source in the 1700-nm spectral band, and compared the attenuation of signal-to-noise ratio between the 1700-nm and 1300-nm OCM imaging of a mouse brain under the condition of the same sensitivity. The comparison clearly showed that the 1700-nm OCM provides larger imaging depth than the 1300-nm OCM. In this 1700-nm OCM, the lateral resolution of 1.3 µm and the axial resolution of 2.8 µm, when a refractive index was assumed to be 1.38, was achieved.

0.54 µm resolution two-photon interference with dispersion cancellation for quantum optical coherence tomography.

Quantum information technologies harness the intrinsic nature of quantum theory to beat the limitations of the classical methods for information processing and communication. Recently, the application of quantum features to metrology has attracted much attention. Quantum optical coherence tomography (QOCT), which utilizes two-photon interference between entangled photon pairs, is a promising approach to overcome the problem with optical coherence tomography (OCT): As the resolution of OCT becomes higher, degradation of the resolution due to dispersion within the medium becomes more critical. Here we report on the realization of 0.54 µm resolution two-photon interference, which surpasses the current record resolution 0.75 µm of low-coherence interference for OCT. In addition, the resolution for QOCT showed almost no change against the dispersion of a 1 mm thickness of water inserted in the optical path, whereas the resolution for OCT dramatically degrades. For this experiment, a highly-efficient chirped quasi-phase-matched lithium tantalate device was developed using a novel 'nano-electrode-poling' technique. The results presented here represent a breakthrough for the realization of quantum protocols, including QOCT, quantum clock synchronization, and more. Our work will open up possibilities for medical and biological applications.

Sensitivity enhancement of fiber-laser-based stimulated Raman scattering microscopy by collinear balanced detection technique.

We propose the collinear balanced detection (CBD) technique for noise suppression in fiber laser (FL)-based stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy. This technique reduces the effect of laser intensity noise at a specific frequency by means of pulse splitting and recombination with a time delay difference. We experimentally confirm that CBD can suppress the intensity noise of second harmonic (SH) of Er-FL pulses by 13 dB.The measured noise level including the thermal noise is higher by only ~1.4 dB than the shot noise limit. To demonstrate SRS imaging, we use 4-ps SH pulses and 3-ps Yb-FL pulses, which are synchronized subharmonically with a jitter of 227 fs. The effectiveness of the CBD technique is confirmed through SRS imaging of a cultured HeLa cell.

Three-dimensional, non-invasive, cross-sectional imaging of protein crystals using ultrahigh resolution optical coherence tomography.

Micro-scale, non-invasive, three-dimensional cross-sectional imaging of protein crystals was successfully accomplished using ultra-high resolution optical coherence tomography (UHR-OCT) with low noise, Gaussian like supercontinuum. This technique facilitated visualization of protein crystals even those in medium that also contained substantial amounts of precipitates. We found the enhancement of the scattered signal from protein crystal by inclusion of agarose gel in the crystallization medium. Crystals of a protein and a salt in the same sample when visualized by UHR-OCT showed distinct physical characteristics, suggesting that protein and salt crystals may, in general, be distinguishable by UHR-OCT. UHR-OCT is a nondestructive and rapid method, which should therefore find use in automated systems designed to visualize crystals.

Coherent ultrashort pulse generation from incoherent light by pulse trapping in birefringent fibers.

We investigated the nonlinear fiber phenomena of pulse trapping and amplification between incoherent light and an ultrashort soliton pulse in birefringent fibers both experimentally and numerically. Using the phenomena in a 1.4 km-long low-birefringence fiber, a coherent, nearly transform-limited, sech2-shaped, ultrashort pulse was generated from incoherent light from a super-luminescent diode. The average pulse energy and pulse width were 121 pJ and 640 fs, respectively. The estimated gain of this system was as large as 62 dB.

Stimulated Raman hyperspectral imaging based on spectral filtering of broadband fiber laser pulses.

We demonstrate a technique of hyperspectral imaging in stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy using a tunable optical filter, whose transmission wavelength can be varied quickly by a galvanometer mirror. Experimentally, broadband Yb fiber laser pulses are synchronized with picosecond Ti:sapphire pulses, and then spectrally filtered out by the filter. After amplification by fiber amplifiers, we obtain narrowband pulses with a spectral width of <3.3 cm(-1) and a wavelength tunability of >225 cm(-1). By using these pulses, we accomplish SRS imaging of polymer beads with spectral information.

Quantitative comparison of contrast and imaging depth of ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography images in 800-1700 nm wavelength region.

We investigated the wavelength dependence of imaging depth and clearness of structure in ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography over a wide wavelength range. We quantitatively compared the optical properties of samples using supercontinuum sources at five wavelengths, 800 nm, 1060 nm, 1300 nm, 1550 nm, and 1700 nm, with the same system architecture. For samples of industrially used homogeneous materials with low water absorption, the attenuation coefficients of the samples were fitted using Rayleigh scattering theory. We confirmed that the systems with the longer-wavelength sources had lower scattering coefficients and less dependence on the sample materials. For a biomedical sample, we observed wavelength dependence of the attenuation coefficient, which can be explained by absorption by water and hemoglobin.

Time-domain near-infrared spectroscopy using a wavelength-tunable narrow-linewidth source by spectral compression of ultrashort soliton pulses.

Time-domain absorption spectroscopy was demonstrated using a wideband, rapid wavelength-tunable, narrow-linewidth source based on an Er-doped ultrashort pulse fiber laser system. The spectrum of the Raman-shifted ultrashort soliton pulse was compressed using a comb-profile dispersion increasing fiber. Rapid wavelength sweeping was demonstrated using an electro-optical intensity modulator. The absorption spectrum of CH(2)Cl(2) liquid at 1625-1780 nm was observed in a 10 µs time-domain measurement.