Fiber Lasers for Coherent Raman Microscopy

WiseCoherent反斯托克斯拉曼散射(CARS)显微镜是一种敏感的、无标记的非线性成像技术，引起了人们的极大兴趣。这项技术需要一个激发源，提供两个时间同步和波长可调的皮秒光脉冲。现有的这种脉冲来源复杂、昂贵，需要训练有素的操作员，这些特点给汽车显微镜的潜在用户带来了重大障碍。康奈尔大学的一个团队将开发基于光纤的光源，这种光源承诺集成、稳定、紧凑和用户友好。这些将促进汽车和相关显微技术的扩展，使其超越专门的研究实验室。康奈尔大学的团队将与哈佛大学的一个团队合作开发这项技术，该团队是汽车显微镜领域的领先者。从全光纤光源产生高能和波长可调的皮秒脉冲是一个重大挑战。为了证明所提出的能力，必须发展对超快非线性脉冲传播的新理解，以及控制超短光脉冲的新方法。这将转化为短脉冲振荡器、放大器和变频级的设计。这类仪器的开发是光纤和超快光学领域的核心。

0967949WiseCoherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy is a sensitive and label-free nonlinear imaging technique that is attracting much interest. The technique requires an excitation source that provides two temporally-synchronized and wavelength-tunable picosecond light pulses. Existing sources of such pulses are complicated, expensive, and require trained operators, and these features create a major barrier to prospective users of CARS microscopy. A group from Cornell University will develop fiber-based light sources that promise to be integrated, stable, compact, and user-friendly. These will facilitate the expansion of CARS and related microscopy techniques beyond specialized research laboratories. The Cornell group will collaborate in the development with a group from Harvard University that is a leader in CARS microscopy. The generation of high-energy and wavelength-tunable picosecond pulses from an all-fiber source is a major challenge. New understanding of ultrafast nonlinear pulse propagation, and new ways to control ultrashort light pulses, will have to be developed in order to demonstrate the proposed capabilities. This will be converted into designs of short-pulse oscillators, amplifiers, and frequency-conversion stages. The development of such instruments is central to the fiber optics and ultrafast optics communities.