Confocal Microscopy and Micromanipulation Based on a Femtosecond Fiber Laser with Ultrawide Tuning Range

We present a highly versatile confocal microscopy setup based on a single mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser. This system provides ultrashort pulses for nonlinear microscopy at 1550 nm (fundamental), from 1050 nm to 1400 nm (tailored supercontinuum) and at 775 nm (second harmonic). Pulse durations in the focal plane are 200 fs at 775 nm and less than 40 fs for the tunable infrared. Instead of using a photonic crystal fiber (PCF), a low-noise supercontinuum is generated in a conventional single-mode fiber.