High power performances of broad bandwidths superluminescent diodes (SLDs) based on chirped-quantum-dot structures operating at 1100 and 1200 nm for optical coherence tomography (OCT) applications

New OCT systems demand higher resolution using broadband SLDs. We have studied a new class of SLDs based on chirped multilayered quantum dots to achieve broad spectral widths. Our SLD chips and modules operating around 1.1µm and 1.2µm have demonstrated wide optical spectra, low spectral ripples and dips allied with record output powers crucial for signal-to-noise performance for in vivo OCT imaging applications [1].