All-fiber, wavelength tunable femtosecond sources for biomedical applications

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究计划的目标是开发一种新型光纤，它将使波长可调的、全光纤、高能飞秒光源成为可能，然后展示所提议的激光系统在生物医学应用中的价值。所提出的飞秒光源的创新是基于最近证明的一种新型光纤，其中，首次在全硅光纤中实现了波长低于1300 nm的大反常色散。基于孤子自频移的概念，研制了一种用于波长调谐的新型高阶模光纤。利用为电信行业开发的高度成熟和集成的技术，我们的目标是创造两个真正强大和交钥匙的电信级飞秒光源，并专门为生物医学研究和临床诊断量身定做。该研究项目涉及康奈尔大学(徐博士)和纤维制造商OFS-Fitel(Ramachandran博士)之间的密切合作。该计划中提出的产学界合作将生物医学光学和光纤通信行业紧密结合在一起，在两个看似不同的领域之间创造了巨大的协同效应，并为生物医学研究的创新提供了新的机会。这一探索性仪器拨款的最终目的是建立一种用于生物医学应用的波长可调、高能飞秒光纤激光器的新方法。拟议的计划如果成功完成，将导致一种新型的、波长可调的飞秒光纤激光器，将对超快技术的生物医学应用产生广泛影响。全光纤配置具有显著的实用优势，例如紧凑的占地面积、坚固的操作能力和临床环境下的操作安全性。这项研究计划的成功完成将使生物学家、医学研究人员和从业者真正广泛地获得飞秒源。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this research program is to develop a novel optical fiber that will enable wavelength tunable, all-fiber, energetic femtosecond sources, and then demonstrate the value of the proposed laser system for biomedical applications. The innovation of the proposed femtosecond sources is based on a new class of optical fiber that was recently demonstrated, where, for the first time, a large anomalous dispersion was achieved at wavelengths below 1300 nm in an all-silica fiber. The proposed research concentrates on the development of a novel higher order mode fiber for wavelength tuning based on the concept of soliton self-frequency shift. Leveraging the highly mature and integrated techniques that have been developed for the telecommunications industry, we aim to create two "telecom grade" femtosecond sources that are truly robust and turn-key, and tailored specifically for biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. This research program involves close collaboration between Cornell University (Dr. Xu) and fiber manufacturer OFS-Fitel (Dr. Ramachandran). The industry-academia collaboration proposed in this program strongly couples biomedical optics and the fiber-optic communication industry, creating great synergies between two seemingly divergent fields and providing new opportunities for innovation in biomedical research. The ultimate aim of this exploratory instrumentation grant is to establish a novel methodology for wavelength tunable, energetic femtosecond fiber lasers for biomedical applications.The proposed program, if successfully completed, leads to a novel, wavelength tunable, femtosecond fiber laser that will have a broad impact on biomedical applications of ultrafast technologies. There are significant practical advantages offered by the all-fiber configuration, such as compact foot print, robust operation, and operational safety in a clinical environment. The successful completion of this research program will make femtosecond sources truly widely accessible to biologists and medical researchers and practitioner.