Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) detects ultrasonic signals from tissue optical absorption. Lipids, with strong absorption at 1.7 μm, are valuable for arteriosclerosis and myocardial infarction imaging. We introduce a high-speed wideband wavelength tunable Raman fiber laser for photoacoustic spectroscopy of lipids. Pump lasers adjust from 1560 to 1600 nm, with a 1 ns pulse width and 100 kHz repetition rate. The pump light combines with seed light and passes the Raman fiber. The seed light amplifies by matching the Raman gain spectrum generated through stimulated Raman scattering. We obtained photoacoustic images in the 1670 - 1720 nm range, demonstrating our lasers for lipid imaging.
For frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) light detection and ranging (LiDAR), which is long-distance 4D measurement technology, fast Fourier transform (FFT) is necessary which requires high-performance computing devices. As the measurement target moves away, the measurable distance is limited by the increased beat frequency and coherence length of the light source. In this study, time-domain coherent LiDAR system was designed using chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) at the reference arm. The proposed technology can measure distance without FFT and regardless of the coherence length of the light source. We acquired distance information and 3D images of targets over 10 meters.
Coherent light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system is widely used to measure distance. Distance and velocity measurements are important in many industries, including autonomous vehicles. However, conventional coherent LiDAR systems has limitations in measuring distance and velocity due to laser coherence length and frequency ambiguity. In this study, through wavelength division multiplexing, multi-interferometer was used to overcome these limitations. To solve the frequency ambiguity in this system, a novel method of frequency decoding is utilized. By applying the frequency decoding to our system, we can address the issues associated with proposed coherent LiDAR.
Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a label-free biomedical imaging technique based on photoacoustic effects. PAI can differentiate various tissues by the different absorption coefficients of each molecule. Therefore, the wavelength band around 1700 nm is advantageous for finding lipid tissue because lipids have a higher absorption coefficient than water at around 1700 nm. In this paper, we demonstrate a stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) pulsed fiber laser with a variable repetition rate for PA generation in 1700 nm. The pulse repetition rate and the pulse energy are inversely proportional under the given optical gain. Therefore, by utilizing a pulse laser with variable repetition rate, we can determine the optimal pulse energy and measurement speed required by the system.
Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a technique for detecting ultrasonic signals occurred from the optical absorption properties of biological tissues. The contrast of PAI is determined by the degree of optical absorption properties of biological tissues. PAI uses absorption contrast to distinguish endogenous factors to image biological tissues. Among various endogenous contrast agents, a lipid with high absorption at 1.7 μm is one of the main agents for identifying diseases such as arteriosclerosis and myocardial infarction.
We present a high-speed wavelength-switchable active mode-locked Raman fiber laser using active mode-locking (AML) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in a 1.7 um band for photoacoustic generation of lipids. the wavelength of 1.7 um band is oscillated to generate high pulse energy on the order of hundreds of nano-Joules. PA signals of lipids can be acquired to prove the feasibility of label-free PAI of lipids.
Coherent ranging is widely used as an optical method to measure a distance from a very fine area to a very wide area. Since distance measurement depends on light interference, a limitation occurs in the coherence length of a laser source light. We attempted to overcome this problem by creating multiple delay lines for each wavelength using a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) reflector in the interferometer. Using the proposed method, it is possible to measure the extended longer distance by using the conventional laser with a short coherence length.
Frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is attractive as the next generation of LiDAR. Since FMCW LiDAR is an optical method of measuring a distance using light interference, the distance measurement range is limited according to the coherence length of laser light. For this reason, FMCW LiDAR is forced to use a special laser with a long coherence length. In this study, we propose to increase the measurable distance range through a novel frequency decoding method using a dual interferometer. Experimentally, we can increase the measurable distance over the full range of coherence length.
We demonstrated the long coherence 1.0-μm stretched-pulse mode locking wavelength-swept source based on a precise dispersion compensation using chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG). In the optical pulse width of 72 ps, the optical bandwidth was 97 nm, and the coherence length was 5.0 mm. We also obtained ultra-high speed in-vivo human retinal optical coherence tomography images with a 5-MHz A-line rate. Because the dispersion profile of CFBG was designed to be linear in wavenumber, the wavenumber linearity of this laser is 0.9999997 (R2), which avoided the use of interpolation during real-time imaging.
An optical interferometry measurement system has lots of advantages, and it is widely used in various applications. For a longer range and higher speed of optical interferometry measurement, it is required a higher burden of data amount during the data acquisition (DAQ) process. A novel light source called comb-swept laser was proposed to solve the heavy load in DAQ, but comb-swept laser needs a solution for the distance aliasing problem. Recently, optical Vernier sampling was suggested to solve the distance aliasing problem with two different free spectral range (FSR) combs. This research introduces a new type of FSR-tunable comb-swept laser for optical Vernier sampling to measure long-range with high speed without high-speed DAQ.
KEYWORDS: Interferometers, Signal to noise ratio, Light, Telescopic pixel displays, Imaging systems, 3D image processing, 3D acquisition, Tomography, Stereoscopy, Interferometry
A novel scheme of white light interferometer (WLI) surface imaging system is demonstrated using a tunable-path-difference source (TPDS). TPDS is applied by adopting Mach–Zehnder interferometry to resolve the vibration noise, which the mechanical scanning has caused in the reference path of conventional WLI. Compared with WLI using comb-spacing-swept source (CSWS), WLI with TPDS is superior in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and total exposure of optical intensity into the camera. Through the improved performance, WLI with TPDS can successfully acquire 3D images at the micron scale and multi-layered tomographic information with fine detail.
We demonstrate dual-band wavelength-comb-swept laser for solving the aliasing interferometer signal in displacement measurement. Wavelength-comb-swept laser with etalon filter has longer coherence length and narrower linewidth than conventional wavelength-swept laser. On the other hand, aliasing of interferometer signal in displacement measurement is induced because of discrete distribution of comb spectra in wavelength domain. By using the dual-band wavelength-comb-swept-laser which has two different free spectral range (FSR) comb in each band, aliasing interferometer signal can be solved.
A multi-spectral laser speckle contrast imaging (MS-LSCI) system is proposed using only a single wavelength-swept laser, which provides both highly coherent and multi-spectral outputs to simultaneously generate laser speckle contrast images and multi-spectral images, respectively. Using a laser light swept from 770 to 821 nm at a repetition rate of 5 Hz and a CCD camera of 335 fps, 67 multi-spectral frame images are acquired in 0.76 nm wavebands over 51 nm spectral range. The spectral sub-windowing method of single wavelength-swept laser source is used to solve the lack of spectral information from a few individual light sources, which is a limitation of conventional MS-LSCI systems. In addition to the speckle flow index from the LSCI frames, the multi-spectrally encoded images can generate additional images of spectral absorbance. To further examine the performance of the MS-LSCI system, an in vivo cuff-induced ischemia experiment was conducted to show the real-time imaging of hemodynamic and blood oxygen saturation changes simultaneously over the entire 2.5 cm × 4.5 cm field of view.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive imaging modality which can provide cross-sectional imaging of the tissues in high-resolution. Especially in retina imaging, the OCT becomes one of the most valuable imaging tools for the diagnostics of the eye diseases. Considering the scattering and absorption properties of the eye, the 1000 nm OCT system is preferred for the retina image. In this study, we describe an akinetic swept source OCT system based on pulse-modulated active mode locking (AML) fiber laser at the 1080 nm wavelength region for in-vivo human retina imaging. The akinetic AML wavelength swept fiber laser is constructed with polarization maintaining fiber which has average linewidth of 0.625 nm, a spectral bandwidth of 81.15 nm and a duty ratio of 90 % without buffering method. We successfully obtained in-vivo human retina images using proposed OCT system without the additional k-clock and the frequency shifter providing wide field of view of 43.1º. The main retina layers such as RPE can be distinguished through the OCT image with axial resolution of 6.3 m.
We propose a high speed strain measurement method using an active mode locking (AML) fiber Bragg grating (FBG) laser sensor with a chirped FBG cavity. The mode-locked frequency of the AML laser depends on both the position and Bragg wavelength of the FBG. Thus, the mode-locked frequency of cascaded FBGs can be detected independently along the cavity length of cascaded FBGs. The strain across FBGs can be interrogated dynamically by monitoring the change in mode-locked frequency. In this respect, the chirped FBG critically improves the frequency sensitivity to Bragg wavelength shift as a function of increasing dispersion in the AML cavity. The strain measurement of the FBG sensor shows a highly linear response, with an R-squared value of 0.9997.
We have demonstrated a quasi-distributed sensor using an active mode-locking (AML) laser with multiple fiber Bragg grating (FBG) reflections of the same center wavelength. We found that variations in the multiple cavity segment lengths between FBGs can be measured by simply sweeping the modulation frequency, because the modulation frequency of the AML laser is proportionally affected by cavity length.
We demonstrated a MHz speed wavelength-swept fiber laser based on the active mode locking (AML) technique and applied to interrogation system of an array of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. MHz speed wavelength sweeping of wavelength-swept fiber laser can be obtained by programmable frequency modulation of the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) without any wavelength tunable filter. Both static and dynamic strain measurement of FBG sensors were successfully characterized with high linearity of an R-square value of 0.9999 at sweeping speed of 50 kHz.
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