Progress in Cherenkov femtosecond fiber lasers

• Published in: Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Applied physics, 2016-01, Vol.49 (2), p.23001-23014
• Main Authors: Liu, Xiaomin, Svane, Ask S, Lægsgaard, Jesper, Tu, Haohua, Boppart, Stephen A, Turchinovich, Dmitry
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical materials; Conversion; Femtosecond; Fiber lasers; Lasers; Low noise; Microscopy; photonic crystal fibers; ultrafast lasers; ultrafast nonlinear optics; Wavelengths
• ISSN: 0022-3727; 1361-6463
• DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/49/2/023001

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.