title: Low-Noise Operation of All-Fiber Femtosecond Cherenkov Laser.
abstract: We investigate the noise properties of a femtosecond all-fiber Cherenkov radiation source with emission wavelength 600 nm, based on an Yb-fiber laser and a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. A relative intensity noise as low as 103 dBc/Hz, corresponding to 2.48% pulse-to-pulse fluctuation in energy, is observed at the Cherenkov radiation output power of 4.3 mW, or 150 pJ-pulse energy. This pulse-to-pulse fluctuation is at least 10.6-dB lower compared to spectrally sliced supercontinuum sources traditionally used for ultrafast fiber-based generation at visible wavelengths. Low noise makes all-fiber Cherenkov sources promising for biophotonics applications such as multiphoton microscopy, where minimum pulse-to-pulse energy fluctuation is required. We present the dependency of the noise figure on both the Cherenkov radiation output power and its spectrum.
authors.affiliation: DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby DK-2800, Denmark.
authors.forename: Xiaomin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby DK-2800, Denmark, and also with the Nanophotonics Technology Center, Universitat Polit'ecnica de Val'encia, Valencia 46022, Spain.
authors.forename: Guillermo E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Villanueva
authors.affiliation: DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby DK-2800, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jesper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lægsgaard
authors.affiliation: DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby DK-2800, Denmark.
authors.forename: Uffe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Møller
authors.affiliation: Biophotonics Imaging Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 USA.
authors.forename: Haohua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Biophotonics Imaging Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 USA.
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Boppart
authors.affiliation: DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby DK-2800, Denmark, and also with the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz 55128, Germany.
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Turchinovich
keywords: Fiber lasers; laser noise; noise measurement; ultrafast optics