High-speed dispersion-tuned wavelength-swept fiber laser using a reflective SOA and a chirped FBG.

We present a high-speed wavelength-swept fiber laser based on a dispersion tuning method using a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) and a chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG). By using these devices, the cavity length can be shortened drastically. The short cavity improves the laser performance at high sweep rates over 200 kHz. We achieve a sweep range of 60 nm and an output power of 8.4 mW at 100 kHz sweep. We applied the dispersion-tuned fiber laser to the swept-source OCT system and successfully obtained OCT images of an adhesive tape at up to 250 kHz sweep rate.

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