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Active Fibre Mode-locked Lasers in Synchronization for STED Microscopy

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Optics, Photonics and Laser Technology 2017

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Optical Sciences ((SSOS,volume 222))

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Abstract

Mode-locked fibre ring lasers can generate picosecond optical pulse widths with MHz repetition rates. Applications in optical imaging, or in experiments with pump-probe lasers, benefit from being able synchronize two lasers at high repetition rates, while retaining the narrow optical pulse widths. We investigate the characteristics of an actively mode-locked fibre ring laser, designed as a slave laser and driven by a commercial Ti:Sapphire laser acting as a master. The master-slave synchronization was stabilized for frequency detuning by matching the cavity lengths, and the dependence of the output pulse width of the slave laser was studied as its cavity was detuned. The increase in pulse width was asymmetric about the ring cavity resonance frequency, a phenomenon that we were able to establish as a consequence of an asymmetry in the detuning range of the higher order cavity modes. We observed that the detuning range decreased linearly with the mode number, an observation that was supported by a theoretical perturbative analysis of cavity locking.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The depletion trace in Fig. 11.1 is a simulation using actual fluorescence traces, not actual data.

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Acknowledgements

S. Krishnamoorthy thanks Prof. Satyajit Mayor from NCBS-TIFR for guidance and support, the BioEngineering Research Initiative at NCBS for supporting her research and providing the opportunity to be associated with the project. The authors thank Jayavel D., Yusuf Panbiharwala and Sathish for help with construction of the lasers. The authors thank Central Imaging and Flow Cytometry Facility (CIFF) at NCBS-TIFR, Bangalore and the photonics@IITM group and Jitu-lab for facilities. Jayant lab and Rama Reddy for support with fluorescence experiments. The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India

    Shree Krishnamoorthy & Anil Prabhakar

  2. Valarkathir Creatronics Private Limited, Chennai, India

    S. Thiruthakkathevan

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  1. Shree Krishnamoorthy
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  2. S. Thiruthakkathevan
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Correspondence to Shree Krishnamoorthy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal

    Paulo Ribeiro

  2. School of Chemistry, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    David L. Andrews

  3. Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal

    Maria Raposo

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Krishnamoorthy, S., Thiruthakkathevan, S., Prabhakar, A. (2019). Active Fibre Mode-locked Lasers in Synchronization for STED Microscopy. In: Ribeiro, P., Andrews, D., Raposo, M. (eds) Optics, Photonics and Laser Technology 2017. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 222. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12692-6_11

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