All-fiber, wavelength tunable femtosecond sources for biomedical applications

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究计划的目标是开发一种新型光纤，该光纤将实现波长可调、全光纤、高能飞秒源，然后证明所提出的激光系统在生物医学应用中的价值。飞秒源的创新是基于最近展示的一种新型光纤，在这种光纤中，首次在波长低于1300 nm的全硅光纤中实现了大的异常色散。本文的研究重点是基于孤子自频移的概念，开发一种用于波长调谐的新型高阶光纤。利用已经为电信行业开发的高度成熟和集成的技术，我们的目标是创建两个“电信级”飞秒源，它们是真正强大和交钥匙的，并且专门为生物医学研究和临床诊断量身定制。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）的密切合作。本项目提出的产学合作将生物医学光学和光纤通信产业紧密结合，在两个看似不同的领域之间产生巨大的协同效应，为生物医学研究提供新的创新机会。这项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、能量飞秒光纤激光器的新方法。该计划如果成功完成，将产生一种新颖的、波长可调的飞秒光纤激光器，这将对超快技术的生物医学应用产生广泛的影响。全光纤配置提供了显著的实用优势，例如占地面积小，操作可靠，在临床环境中操作安全。这项研究计划的成功完成将使飞秒源真正广泛地为生物学家、医学研究人员和从业者所利用。

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.