Abstract
Frequency comb swept lasers or wavelength stepped swept lasers with comb filters have been proposed in optical domain subsampling or circular-ranging optical coherence tomography (OCT) to achieve high axial scan rate and extended imaging range with a given acquisition bandwidth. However, the comb filters lack flexibility in varying the free spectral range (FSR). In this article, we propose and demonstrate a novel discrete Fourier domain mode locked (FDML) laser by using intracavity optical intensity modulation. Swept signals with comb lines uniformly distributed in the frequency domain is generated with tailor-made pulse patterns according to the sweep trace of the swept filter. Discrete k-space uniform swept signals with different FSRs and pulse durations are generated in the same laser. The FDML laser discretized by temporal modulation is more stable than that with a comb filter. The discrete FDML lasers will be potential sources of OCT and the fast-developing swept source LiDAR.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2949-2955 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Lightwave Technology |
Volume | 39 |
Issue number | 9 |
Early online date | 25 Jan 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 May 2021 |
Scopus Subject Areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
User-Defined Keywords
- Fourier domain mode locked laser
- optical coherence tomography
- time domain modulation