Title

Experimental electric field visualisation of multi-mode dynamics in a short cavity swept laser designed for OCT applications

Authors

T. P. Butler, Center for Applied Photonics and Process Analysis, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland;Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland; Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
D. Goulding, Department of Mathematics, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland; Center for Applied Photonics and Process Analysis, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland; Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland;Follow
S. Slepneva, Center for Applied Photonics and Process Analysis, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland; Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland
Ben O’Shaughnessy, Department of Mathematics, Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland; Center for Applied Photonics and Process Analysis, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland; Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, IrelandFollow
Stephen P. Hegarty, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland, Centre for Advanced Photonics and Process Analysis, Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland and Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Cork, IrelandFollow
G. Huyet, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology; Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Institut de Physique de Nice, F-06560 Valbonne, France; National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Saint Petersburg, Russia
B. Kelleher, Department of Physics, University College Cork, Ireland; Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Electrical and Computer Engineering | Electromagnetics and Photonics | Engineering | Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Publication Details

Optics Express, Vol. 27, Issue 5, pp. 7307-7318

Abstract

An experimental study into the modal dynamics of a short cavity, fast frequency-swept laser is presented. This commercially available external cavity swept source is designed for use in optical coherence tomography (OCT) applications and displays a number of dynamic lasing regimes during the course of the wavelength sweep. Interferometric full electric field reconstruction is employed, allowing for measurement of the laser operation in a time-resolved, single-shot manner. Recovery of both the phase and intensity of the laser output across the entire sweep enables direct visualization of the laser instantaneous optical spectrum. The electric field reconstruction technique reveals the presence of multi-mode dynamics, including coherent mode-locked pulses. During the main part of the imaging sweep, the laser is found to operate in a second harmonic sliding frequency mode-locking regime. Examination of the modal evolution of this coherent regime reveals evidence of previously unobserved frequency switching dynamics.

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