Variable repetition rate supercontinuum pulses

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10074957-B2
Application number	US-201715431111-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2017
Priority date	Jan 19, 2008
Publication date	Sep 11, 2018
Grant date	Sep 11, 2018

Abstract

A method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses can comprise generating optical pump pulses with an optical pump laser, the optical pump pulses having a pump pulse repetition rate; launching optical pump pulses into a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber; generating optical supercontinuum pulses from the optical pump pules via spectral broadening within the optical fiber; selectively providing a plurality of different repetition rates for the optical pump pulses so as to generate optical supercontinuum pulses having different repetition rates; and providing nominally identical spectral broadening of the optical supercontinuum pules having the different repetition rates.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses, comprising:
generating optical pump pulses with an optical pump source;
launching optical pump pulses into a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber;
generating optical supercontinuum pulses from the optical pump pulses via spectral broadening within the optical fiber;
selectively providing a plurality of different repetition rates for the optical pump pulses so as to generate optical supercontinuum pulses having different repetition rates; and
providing nominally identical spectral broadening of the optical pump pulses having the different repetition rates.

2. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 1 , comprising using the optical supercontinuum pulses to provide illumination in an application to excite fluorescence.

3. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 2 , comprising measuring a decay lifetime of the excited fluorescence.

4. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 2 , wherein the application comprises fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM).

5. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 2 , wherein the application comprises stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy.

6. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 1 , comprising wavelength filtering the optical supercontinuum pulses at a predetermined wavelength.

7. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 1 , comprising launching the optical pump pulses into the optical fiber without the use of free space optics.

8. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 1 , comprising amplifying the optical pump pulses prior to launching the optical pump pulses into the nonlinear optical element.

9. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 8 , wherein the amplified optical pump pulses have the plurality of different repetition rates prior to launching the amplified optical pump pulses into the nonlinear optical element.

10. A method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses, comprising:
generating optical pump pulses with an optical pump source, an optical pump pulse having a pulse energy;
launching optical pump pulses into a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber;
generating optical supercontinuum pulses from the optical pump pulses via spectral broadening within the optical fiber;
selectively providing a plurality of different repetition rates for the optical pump pulses so as to generate optical supercontinuum pulses having different repetition rates; and
wherein the pulse energy is fixed as the pulse to pulse separation is increased with reducing repetition rate.

11. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 10 , comprising using the optical supercontinuum pulses to provide illumination in an application to excite fluorescence.

12. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 11 , comprising measuring a decay lifetime of the excited fluorescence.

13. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 11 , wherein the application is fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM).

14. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 11 , wherein the application is stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy.

15. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 10 , comprising wavelength filtering the optical supercontinuum pulses at a predetermined wavelength.

16. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 10 , comprising launching the optical pump pulses into the optical fiber without the use of free space optics.

17. The method of providing optical supercontinuum pulses of claim 10 , comprising amplifying the optical pump pulses prior to launching the pump pulses into the nonlinear optical element.

18. A supercontinuum pulse source, comprising:
an optical pump source for generating optical pump pulses;
the optical pump pulses having a selectively variable pump pulse repetition rate so that optical pump pulses can have different repetition rates;
a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber arranged to receive the optical pump pulses and spectrally broaden the optical pump pulses to generate optical supercontinuum pulses;
wherein the optical pump pulses having different repetition rates generate optical supercontinuum pulses having different repetition rates; and
wherein optical pump pulses having different repetition rates are nominally identically spectrally broadened by the nonlinear optical element.

19. A supercontinuum pulse source, comprising:
an optical pump source operable to generate optical pump pulses, an optical pump pulse having a pump pulse energy;
a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber arranged to receive the optical pump pulses and spectrally broaden the optical pump pulses to generate optical supercontinuum pulses;
the optical pump pulses further comprising a plurality of different repetition rates, wherein the optical pump pulses having different repetition rates generate optical supercontinuum pulses having different repetition rates;
wherein the optical pulse energy is fixed as the pulse to pulse separation is increased with reducing repetition rate.

Assignees

• Nkt Photonics As

Inventors

• Clowes John Redvers
• Grudinin Anatoly Borisovich
• Godfrey Ian Michael

Classifications

• G01N21/6458

  Fluorescence microscopy (fluorescence microscopes per se G02B21/0076 and G02B21/16) · CPC title

• G01N2021/6419

  Excitation at two or more wavelengths · CPC title

• H01S3/2308

  Amplifier arrangements, e.g. MOPA · CPC title

• G01N2201/0697

  Pulsed lasers · CPC title

• H01S3/10046

  Pulse repetition rate control (H01S3/11 takes precedence) · CPC title