title: Gain-guided soliton fiber laser with high-quality rectangle spectrum for ultrafast time-stretch microscopy.
abstract: The ultrafast time-stretch microscopy has been proposed to enhance the temporal resolution of a microscopy system. The optical source is a key component for ultrafast time-stretch microscopy system. Herein, we reported on the gain-guided soliton fiber laser with high-quality rectangle spectrum for ultrafast time-stretch microscopy. By virtue of the excellent characteristics of the gain-guided soliton, the output power and the 3-dB bandwidth of the stable mode-locked soliton could be up to 3 mW and 33.7 nm with a high-quality rectangle shape, respectively. With the proposed robust optical source, the ultrafast time-stretch microscopy with the 49.6 μm resolution and a scan rate of 11 MHz was achieved without the external optical amplification. The obtained results demonstrated that the gain-guided soliton fiber laser could be used as an alternative high-quality optical source for ultrafast time-stretch microscopy and will introduce some applications in fields such as biology, chemical, and optical sensing.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ai-Ping
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Zhi-Chao
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Wen-Cheng
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Xu