title: Delivery of nanojoule femtosecond pulses through large-core microstructured fibers.
abstract: We investigate femtosecond-pulse propagation through large-core microstructured fibers. Although these fibers are highly multimode, excitation of the fundamental mode is readily achieved, and coupling to higher-order modes is weak even when the fiber is bent or twisted. For prechirped input pulses with energies as large as 3 nJ, pulses as short as 140 fs were produced at the output of the fiber. Such a system could prove to be extremely useful for applications such as in vivo multiphoton microscopy and endoscopy that require delivery of femtosecond pulses and collection of fluorescence.
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Ouzounov
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Moll
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Zipfel
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: Alexander L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Gaeta