Highly functional ultrashort pulse fiber laser sources and applications for optical coherence tomography

We have been investigating highly functional ultrashort pulse fiber laser sources for highly sensitive, ultrahigh resolution optical coherence tomography (UHR-OCT). The coherent, low-noise, and Gaussian like wideband super-continuum (SC) sources were developed at five different wavelength regions between 0.8 and 1.7 um in order to investigate the wavelength dependence of OCT imaging. A real-time imaging was achieved with spectral domain OCT system. A fiber laser based, rapid, widely wavelength tunable narrow linewidth source was also developed. The UHR-OCT imaging of biological samples were demonstrated using the developed OCT systems.