OP: High Power Widely Tunable Fiber Lasers for Nonlinear Optical Microscopy

用于癌症和脑组织非线性光学显微镜的高功率宽可调谐光纤激光器的开发非技术描述本研究计划将通过将工作波长扩展到新的区域来寻求提高基于光纤格式的超快激光源的性能。该计划的成功成果将允许开发具有新功能的有用仪器，通过使用广泛可调的波长，能量和超短光脉冲。这些仪器将对生物医学成像和研究界产生变革性的影响，提供先进的功能，如按需波长调谐，进入困难的光谱区域，同步超快激光脉冲泵/探针光谱。从教育的角度来看，这项研究将使PI能够通过亚利桑那大学光学科学学院的既定教育计划，培养超快激光器和光纤激光器领域的博士毕业生。将研究成果纳入两门研究生课程，进一步完善研究生教育。在未来的夏季，本科生将参与超快光纤激光器及其应用的研究。PI将通过全年指导和实习，以及参加各种NSF资助的外展项目，如“光学科学夏令营”、“迷上光子学”、“本科生集成光学”等，让来自代表性不足群体（印第安人、女性）的学生参与他的研究。和“教师研究经验”技术描述本项目的目的是研究高性能宽可调谐同步泵浦超快光纤参量振荡器在腔内表现出新的脉冲演变。标准光增益和参量相互作用在单一激光腔内的结合不仅为高输出功率工作开辟了道路，而且还产生了以前从未研究过的新动力学。该项目将解决目前阻碍该激光平台成为适合非线性显微镜应用的一些关键问题。本提案的具体目标是：1)开发紧凑且坚固的超快光纤激光器，以取代昂贵且笨重的钛蓝宝石飞秒激光器；2)产生超快激光波长，目前还没有商用（光纤格式），如1300 nm和1700 nm，这对深层组织多光子成像很重要；3)在癌症和脑成像等实际应用中对开发的激光源进行表征和测试。本项目将首次从实验和理论两方面对超快光纤参量振荡器进行系统的研究。这项研究将使新的高功率光纤激光器能够在当前最先进的光纤激光器技术无法提供的重要波长间隙工作。近年来，基于传统增益介质的光纤激光器工作在正常色散区，具有自相似脉冲整形。这使得光纤激光器能够实现高能量、高功率和低噪声的性能，超越其他基于晶体和自由空间光学的固态激光器。我们已经证明，光纤参量振荡器可以设计成工作在自相似状态。自相似的进化开辟了新的途径，以创建紧凑和强大的光学参数振荡器，具有非常宽的波长调谐和高输出功率水平，适用于非线性光学显微镜和一系列其他应用，如3D书写，泵/探针光谱，频率梳计量。

Development of high power widely tunable fiber lasers for nonlinear optical microscopy of cancer and brain tissuesNontechnical descriptionThis research program will seek to improve the performance of ultrafast laser sources based on fiber format by extending the operating wavelength to new regions. A successful outcome of this program will allow the development of useful instruments with new capabilities through the use of widely tunable wavelengths, energetic, and ultrashort optical pulses. These instruments will have transformative impact on the biomedical imaging and research community by providing advanced capabilities such as on-demand wavelength tuning, access to difficult spectral regions, synchronized ultrafast laser pulses for pump/probe spectroscopy. From an educational perspective, this research will allow the PI to educate PhD graduates in the fields of Ultrafast Lasers and Fiber Lasers through the established educational programs at the College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona. Graduate education will be further improved by incorporating the research results into two graduate courses. In future as in previous summer months, undergraduate students will be involved in research on ultrafast fiber lasers and their applications. The PI will involve students from underrepresented groups (Native Americans, women) in his research through year round mentoring and internships, and by participating in various NSF funded outreach programs such as "Optical Sciences summer Camp", "Hooked on Photonics", "Integrated Optics for Undergraduates", and "Research Experience for Teachers"Technical descriptionThe purpose of this project is to investigate high performance widely tunable synchronously pumped ultrafast fiber optical parametric oscillators exhibiting new pulse evolutions in the cavity. The combination of standard optical gain and parametric interaction in a single laser cavity not only opens route to high output power operation but also gives rise to new dynamics never studied before. The project will address a number of key issues that currently prevent this laser platform from becoming suitable for nonlinear microscopy application. The specific goals of this proposal are: 1) Develop compact and robust ultrafast fiber lasers that can replace expensive and bulky Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser; 2) Generate ultrafast laser wavelengths not currently available commercially (in fiber format) such as 1300 nm and 1700 nm which are important for deep tissue multiphoton imaging; 3) Characterize and test the developed laser sources on real applications including cancer and brain imaging. This project will provide the first systematic study of ultrafast fiber optical parametric oscillators both experimentally and theoretically. The research will enable new high power fiber lasers working at important wavelength gaps that current state-of-the-art fiber laser technology cannot provide. Recently, fiber lasers based on traditional gain media operating in normal dispersion regime with self-similar pulse-shaping have been introduced. This has enabled fiber lasers to achieve high energy, high power, and low noise performance surpassing that of other solid-state lasers based on crystals and free-space optics. We have shown that fiber optical parametric oscillators can be designed to work in self-similar regime. The self-similar evolution opens new routes to create compact and robust optical parametric oscillators with very broad wavelength tuning and high output power level suitable for nonlinear optical microscopy and a range of other applications such as 3D writing, pump/probe spectroscopy, frequency comb metrology.