Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120268808 | Optical Source with Remote Optical Head Outputting High Power Short Optical Pulses - An optical source can include a remote optical head for outputting high power short optical pulses. The optical source can include signal source operable to output short optical pulses; an optical pump light source; an optical head provided at a location remote from the location of the optical signal source; and an optical fibre amplifier having at least its optical output located within the optical head. The source can also include an optical signal delivery fibre arranged to deliver optical pulses from the optical signal source to the optical fibre amplifier and a pump light delivery fibre arranged to deliver optical pump light to the high power optical fibre amplifier. In use short optical pulses of a first optical power are delivered to the optical fibre amplifier and are amplified therein to a higher optical power for output from the optical head | 10-25-2012 |
20130188241 | Flexible and Stable Supercontinuum Source - Optical pulse source comprising optical pump laser for generating optical pump pulses at repetition rate Rf; a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber for generating supercontinuum pulses; a gating device provided operable to selectively control the launch of pump pulses into the optical fiber at a reduced, lower repetition rate Rr=Rf/N in order to generate supercontinuum pulses at different user selectable repetition rates lower than the pump pulse repetition rate; first and second optical amplifiers; wavelength tunable optical bandpass filter; wherein the optical fiber can generate supercontinuum pulses having a supercontinuum spanning from below 450 nm to greater than 2000 nm; and wherein said optical pulse source comprises an all-fiber source wherein said optical pump laser comprises a fiber oscillator, said gating device comprises a fiber coupled optical modulator, and the optical pump pulses are launched into the optical fiber without the use of free space optics. | 07-25-2013 |
20130208736 | Method For Illuminating A Sample With Supercontinuum Pulses - A method of providing supercontinuum illumination in applications involving the excitation of fluorescence, comprising generating, at an optical pump laser, optical pump pulses at a pump pulse repetition rate; selectively controlling with an optical modulator the launch of pump pulses into a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber at a variable, lower repetition rate to thereby selectively control the repetition rate of supercontinuum pulses generated within the optical fiber; and illuminating a sample with supercontinuum pulses to excite fluorescence. The supercontinuum pulses can be wavelength filtered such that the fluorescence is excited with wave length filtered supercontinuum pulses. | 08-15-2013 |
20130208737 | Variable Repetition Rate And Wavelength Optical Pulse Source - Variable repetition rate and wavelength optical pulse source, comprising a fixed or variable repetition rate source of supercontinuum pulses; a wavelength tunable optical bandpass filter to filter the supercontinuum pulses at two or more wavelengths, wherein said source of supercontinuum pulses and said wavelength tunable optical bandpass filter are configured such that the optical pulse source can provide variable repetition rate and variable wavelength optical pulses including a series of repetition rates with selected wavelength-varying pulse trains. | 08-15-2013 |
20130208738 | Method and Apparatus for Providing Supercontinuum Pulses - Optical pulse source for generating optical supercontinuum pulses, comprising an optical pump laser operable to generate optical pump pulses at a pump pulse repetition rate Rf; a nonlinear optical element comprising a microstructured optical fiber arranged to receive the optical pump pulses and configured to spectrally broaden the pump pulses to generate optical supercontinuum pulses; an optical modulator provided between the optical pump laser and the microstructured optical fiber and operable to selectively control the launch of pump pulses into the microstructured optical fiber at a variable, reduced repetition rate Rr=Rf/N, wherein N is a positive integer, to thereby control the repetition rate of optical supercontinuum pulses generated within the nonlinear element; and wherein the optical pulse source is configured to provide a plurality of different repetition rates and nominally identical spectral broadening for the different repetition rates. | 08-15-2013 |
20130208739 | Supercontinuum Pulse Source - An optical pulse source for generating optical supercontinuum pulses comprises an optical pump laser operable to generate optical pump pulses at a pump pulse repetition rate Rf; a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber for generating optical supercontinuum pulses; an optical modulator operable to selectively control the launch of pump pulses into the optical fiber at a reduced, lower repetition rate Rr=Rf/N in order to generate optical supercontinuum pulses at a selectable and lower repetition rate; an optical fiber amplifier located between the optical modulator and the optical pump laser; wherein the optical supercontinuum pulses generated by the optical fiber have a supercontinuum spanning from below 450 nm to greater than 2000 nm; wherein the optical pulse source is provided with a microprocessor configured to determine when supercontinuum pulses are delivered; and wherein the optical pulse source is configured to provide an output trigger signal. | 08-15-2013 |
20130271824 | OPTICAL PULSE SOURCE - The invention can include an apparatus for producing optical pulses, comprising an oscillator for producing optical pulses at a first optical pulse repetition frequency, the optical pulses having a first wavelength; a first optical fiber amplifier; a second optical fiber amplifier; a pulse picker located between the first and second optical fiber amplifiers, the pulse picker operable to reduce the optical pulse repetition frequency of optical pulses, wherein the first amplifier amplifies optical pulses at the first optical pulse repetition frequency and the second amplifier amplifies optical pulses at a reduced optical pulse repetition frequency that is less than the first optical pulse repetition frequency; a nonlinear optical fiber receiving amplified optical pulses having the reduced optical pulse repetition frequency and the first wavelength to produce, at the reduced optical pulse frequency, optical pulses that include one or more nonlinearly produced wavelengths different than the first wavelength; and wherein the pulse picker and the first and second optical fiber amplifiers are located between the oscillator and the nonlinear optical fiber. | 10-17-2013 |
20140092925 | OPTICAL PULSE APPARATUS AND METHOD - The invention can include an apparatus for producing optical pulses, comprising an oscillator for producing optical pulses at a first optical pulse repetition frequency, the optical pulses having a first wavelength and a first time duration; a pulse picker for receiving optical pulses having the first optical pulse repetition frequency, first wavelength and first time duration and operable to reduce the optical pulse repetition frequency to produce optical pulses having the first wavelength, first time duration and a reduced optical pulse repetition frequency that is less than the first optical pulse repetition frequency; an optical fiber receiving optical pulses at the reduced optical pulse repetition frequency and having the first wavelength and first time duration to produce, at the reduced optical pulse frequency, optical pulses that include one or more nonlinearly produced wavelengths different than the first wavelength. | 04-03-2014 |
20140104677 | SOURCE OF OPTICAL PULSES - The invention can include an apparatus for producing optical pulses, comprising an oscillator for producing optical pulses at a first optical pulse repetition frequency, the optical pulses having a first frequency of light; a pulse picker for receiving optical pulses having the first optical pulse repetition frequency and operable to reduce the optical pulse repetition frequency to produce optical pulses having the first frequency and a reduced optical pulse repetition frequency that is less than the first optical pulse repetition frequency; an optical fiber receiving optical pulses having the reduced optical pulse repetition frequency and first frequency, to nonlinearly produce light that includes a frequency that is twice the first frequency; and an Ytterbium doped fiber amplifier in optical communication with the pulse picker and the optical fiber and located between the pulse picker and the oscillator. | 04-17-2014 |