title: Compact fiber-delivered Cr:forsterite laser for nonlinear light microscopy.
abstract: We demonstrate a compact and self-starting fiber-delivered femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser for nonlinear light microscopy. A semiconductor saturable absorber mirror provides the self-starting mechanism and maintains long-term stability in the laser cavity. Four double-chirped mirrors are employed to reduce the size of the cavity and to compensate for group velocity dispersion. Delivered by a large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber, the generated laser pulses can be compressed down to be with a nearly transform-limited pulse width with 2.2-nJ fiber-output pulse energy. Based on this fiber-delivered Cr:forsterite laser source, a compact and reliable two-photon fluorescence microscopy system can thus be realized.
authors.affiliation: National Taiwan University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Graduate Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ming-Che
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Tzu-Ming
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shih-Peng
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Tai
authors.forename: Chi-Kuang
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D002857:Chromium; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D007834:Lasers; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008904:Miniaturization; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017655:Silicon Compounds
chemical_list: D017655:Silicon Compounds; C503823:forsterite; D002857:Chromium