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发展非技术描述本研究计划将寻求通过将工作波长扩展到新的区域来提高基于光纤格式的超快激光光源的性能。该计划的成功成果将允许通过使用广泛可调的波长、能量和超短光脉冲来开发具有新功能的有用仪器。这些仪器将通过提供按需波长调谐、访问困难光谱区域、用于泵浦/探测光谱学的同步超快激光脉冲等先进功能，对生物医学成像和研究领域产生革命性影响。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现有的教育项目，培养超快激光和光纤激光领域的博士毕业生。通过将研究成果纳入两门研究生课程，将进一步改善研究生教育。与前几个暑期一样，未来本科生将参与超快光纤激光器及其应用的研究。PI将邀请来自未被充分代表的群体(美洲原住民，女性)的学生参与他的研究，通过全年的指导和实习，并通过参加NSF资助的各种推广计划，如“光学科学夏令营”、“挂钩光子学”、“本科生集成光学”和“教师的研究经验”技术描述本项目的目的是研究高性能的可广泛调谐的同步泵浦超快光纤参量振荡器，展示腔内新的脉冲演化。在单个激光腔中结合标准光增益和参量相互作用，不仅为高功率运转开辟了道路，而且还产生了以前从未研究过的新的动力学。该项目将解决目前阻碍该激光平台适用于非线性显微镜应用的一些关键问题。这项建议的具体目标是：1)开发紧凑而坚固的超快光纤激光器，可取代昂贵而笨重的钛宝石飞秒激光器；2)产生目前商业上无法获得的超快激光波长(光纤格式)，如1300 nm和1700 nm，这对深层组织多光子成像非常重要；3)表征和测试所开发的光源在实际应用中的应用，包括癌症和脑成像。该项目将首次从实验和理论上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重要的波长间隙工作，这是当前最先进的光纤激光器技术无法提供的。近年来，基于传统增益介质的自相似脉冲整形光纤激光器已被引入正常色散区工作。这使得光纤激光器获得了超过其他基于晶体和自由空间光学的固体激光器的高能量、高功率和低噪声性能。我们已经证明，光纤参量振荡器可以被设计成工作在自相似区域。这种自相似的演化为创造紧凑和坚固的光学参量振荡器开辟了新的途径，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其他一系列应用，如3D写入、泵浦/探测光谱、频率梳测量。

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.