Widely tunable femtosecond pulses from a tapered fiber for ultrafast microscopy and multiphoton applications

Sub-50fs transform limited pulses are produced in the 670-1050nm range by compressing sections of the ultrabroadband supercontinuum generated in a tapered fiber injected with pulses from a cavity dumped Ti:Sapphire laser. 2-Photon imaging of fluorescent beads is demonstrated. Biological and chemical applications are discussed.