Rapidly Wavelength-Swept Laser at 780 nm

We present herein the first high-power rapidly wavelength-swept laser in the 780-nm band. A commercial diode laser was modified to increase its sweep frequency up to 30 kHz thus allowing its use for real-time biomedical imaging. The tuning range of the laser starts at 761 nm and goes up to 798 nm. The maximum output power of the laser after coupling it into a single-mode fiber is 54 mW and its coherence length is 11 mm. The potential of this laser for biomedical imaging was demonstrated in a spectrally encoded setup.