Progress in Cherenkov femtosecond fiber lasers.
We review the recent developments in the field of ultrafast Cherenkov fiber lasers. Two essential properties of such laser systems - broad wavelength tunability and high efficiency of Cherenkov radiation wavelength conversion are discussed. The exceptional performance of the Cherenkov fiber laser systems are highlighted - dependent on the realization scheme, the Cherenkov lasers can generate the femtosecond output tunable across the entire visible and even the UV range, and for certain designs more than 40 % conversion efficiency from the pump to Cherenkov signal can be achieved. The femtosecond Cherenkov laser with all-fiber architecture is presented and discussed. Operating in the visible range, it delivers 100-200 fs wavelength-tunable pulses with multimilliwatt output power and exceptionally low noise figure an order of magnitude lower than the traditional wavelength tunable supercontinuum-based femtosecond sources. The applications for Cherenkov laser systems in practical biophotonics and biomedical applications, such as bio-imaging and microscopy, are discussed.
DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
Xiaomin
X
Liu
DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
Ask S
AS
Svane
DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
Jesper
J
Lægsgaard
Biophotonics Imaging Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, U.S.A.
Haohua
H
Tu
Biophotonics Imaging Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, U.S.A.
Stephen A
SA
Boppart
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
Dmitry
D
Turchinovich
photonic crystal fibers; ultrafast lasers; ultrafast nonlinear optics