US20110311233A1 - Automated dispersion compensation over a broad wavelength range for coherent optical pulses - Google Patents
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- 239000006185 dispersion Substances 0.000 title claims abstract description 121
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- 238000013459 approach Methods 0.000 description 1
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B10/00—Transmission systems employing electromagnetic waves other than radio-waves, e.g. infrared, visible or ultraviolet light, or employing corpuscular radiation, e.g. quantum communication
- H04B10/25—Arrangements specific to fibre transmission
- H04B10/2507—Arrangements specific to fibre transmission for the reduction or elimination of distortion or dispersion
- H04B10/2513—Arrangements specific to fibre transmission for the reduction or elimination of distortion or dispersion due to chromatic dispersion
- H04B10/25137—Arrangements specific to fibre transmission for the reduction or elimination of distortion or dispersion due to chromatic dispersion using pulse shaping at the transmitter, e.g. pre-chirping or dispersion supported transmission [DST]
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B10/00—Transmission systems employing electromagnetic waves other than radio-waves, e.g. infrared, visible or ultraviolet light, or employing corpuscular radiation, e.g. quantum communication
- H04B10/25—Arrangements specific to fibre transmission
- H04B10/2507—Arrangements specific to fibre transmission for the reduction or elimination of distortion or dispersion
- H04B10/2513—Arrangements specific to fibre transmission for the reduction or elimination of distortion or dispersion due to chromatic dispersion
- H04B10/25133—Arrangements specific to fibre transmission for the reduction or elimination of distortion or dispersion due to chromatic dispersion including a lumped electrical or optical dispersion compensator
Definitions
- Sources of coherent optical pulses such as lasers, optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers, etc., configured to produce outputs having very high peak intensities are used in a number of research applications. Such sources are commonly used in applications that include multi-photon microscopy, materials testing, and nonlinear spectroscopy. Many of these applications require high peak intensities and pulsewidths in the sub-picosecond pulse duration regime.
- these sources of coherent optical pulses are used in conjunction with an optical system comprised of one or more optical components, including, without limitation, lenses, mirrors, modulators, acousto-optical modulators, optical crystals, etalons, gratings, optical fibers, and the like.
- the coherent optical pulses may propagate through a variety of materials, including, without limitation, air, glass, optical coatings applied to one or more optical devices, and the like.
- the amount of time required for the light to propagate through various optical components often varies as a function of wavelength, this property of optical components is called dispersion.
- a chirp may be introduced in the pulsed optical signal propagating through these components, i.e. different wavelength components are shifted in time within the pulse.
- the pulse duration of the optical pulse becomes longer. Dispersion of an optical component is positive when longer wavelength light travels faster through the optical component than shorter wavelength light. If an optical pulse passes through an optical component with positive dispersion, the pulse becomes positively chirped, i.e. longer wavelength components are ahead of shorter wavelength components within the pulse.
- the high peak intensity optical pulse may be substantially degraded during its propagation through the optical system. For example, the peak intensity may be drastically reduced as the pulsewidth increases. Higher order distortion of the pulses is also common.
- a dispersion compensator may be positioned within the optical system.
- the dispersion compensator is configured to produce a dispersion of an opposite sign to the dispersion of the optical system and, ideally, of the same absolute value.
- the dispersion compensator is configured to have negative dispersion and introduce negative chirp into the optical signal, thereby negating the positive dispersion of the optical system. Therefore, the pulsewidth in the output of the optical system is short again. While this approach has proven somewhat successful in the past, a number of shortcomings have been identified.
- dispersion of both the optical system and the dispersion compensator changes significantly with pulse wavelength and not in the same manner.
- applications requiring wide wavelength ranges require extensive tuning processes to produce compressed pulses over the full wavelength range of the optical system. These tuning processes tend to be time-consuming manual endeavors. Further, these tuning processes may need to be repeated frequently.
- the present application is directed to an apparatus and method for the automated compensation of dispersion over a broad wavelength range for coherent optical pulses.
- the present application discloses an automatic dispersion compensating optical apparatus configured to change chirp introduced into an optical signal by an optical system in optical communication with the dispersion compensating optical apparatus and includes at least optical parametric oscillator configured to output at least one optical signal, at least one dispersion compensation device configured to receive the optical signal from the optical parametric oscillator, and at least one controller in communication with the dispersion compensation device and configured to adjust chirp introduced into the optical signal by the dispersion compensation device as the wavelength of the optical signal is varied.
- the present application is directed to a method of automatically adjusting chirp of at least one optical signal to the desired value as the signal propagates through an optical system and includes providing a dispersion compensation device having at least one controller in communication therewith, directing at least one optical signal from an optical parametric oscillator into the dispersion compensation device, sending a control signal from the controller to the dispersion compensation device to automatically adjust the dispersion compensation device to introduce the desired chirp into the optical signal as the wavelength of the signal is tuned, and outputting the optical signal into an optical system in optical communication with the dispersion compensation device.
- FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of an embodiment of an automated dispersion compensating optical apparatus.
- FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an optical apparatus having a dispersion compensation device therein.
- the dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 includes at least one wavelength-tunable coherent source of light pulses 12 and at least one dispersion compensation device 14 in optical communication with the coherent source 12 .
- the coherent source 12 comprises a Ti:Sapphire laser.
- the coherent source 12 may comprise one or more Cr:Fosterite lasers, Cr:LiCAF lasers, Cr:LiSAF lasers, Yb:KYW lasers, Yb:KGW lasers, dye lasers, optical parametric oscillators, master oscillator power amplifiers, optical parametric amplifiers, and any other pulsed coherent light sources.
- the coherent source is tunable over a range of wavelengths from about 300 nm to about 3000 nm. In another embodiment, the coherent source is tunable over a range of wavelengths from about 500 nm to about 1500 nm. In another embodiment, the coherent source may be tunable over a range of wavelengths from about 600 nm to about 1300 nm. In one embodiment the coherent source produces optical pulses of shorter than one picosecond pulse widths.
- the coherent optical source 12 emits one or more optical signals or beams 16 consisting of a sequence of optical pulses which are directed into the dispersion compensation device 14 .
- the dispersion compensation device 14 includes one or more prisms.
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may include one or more prisms, gratings, etalons, chirp mirrors, spatial light modulators, lenses, optical mounts, optical stages, optical fibers, bulk materials, motors, actuators, Gires Tournois interferometers, and the like.
- one or more of the optical components contained within the dispersion compensation device 14 may be adjustably positioned therein.
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may be configured to translate axially or laterally, to rotate, or to tilt, and/or any combination thereof.
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may include one or more selectively positionable optical mounts, stages, actuators, motors, positioning devices, and the like.
- the dispersion compensation device 14 has a throughput of greater than about 70%. In an alternate embodiment, the dispersion compensation device has a throughput of greater than about 80%.
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may be configured to introduce desired negative or positive chirp into the output optical signal 20 shown in FIG. 1 .
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may be configured to output a negatively chirped output 20 to the optical system 22 .
- the magnitude of the negative chirp in the output signal 20 is approximately equal to the positive chirp to be introduced into the optical signal by the optical system 22 .
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may be configured to provide a negative dispersion of approximately the same value as a positive dispersion of the optical system 22 at all operation wavelengths in order to fully compensate for the pulse degradation caused by the dispersive optical system 22 .
- this dispersion compensation device 14 can be adjusted for the second order dispersion (GDD: group delay dispersion) as well as any higher order dispersion and/or alternate types of dispersion, and can be used to adjust the pulse duration or peak intensity of the optical pulses.
- GDD group delay dispersion
- the magnitude of the negative chirp in the output signal 20 is greater than the positive chirp to be introduced into the optical signal by the optical system 22 .
- the magnitude of the negative chirp in the output signal 20 is less than the positive chirp to be introduced into the optical signal by the optical system 22 .
- the dispersion compensation device 14 is in communication with at least one controller 18 .
- the controller 18 may be configured to provide one or more control signals 28 to the dispersion compensation device 14 .
- the controller 18 may provide one or more control signals to the coherent source 12 .
- the controller 18 may be configured to store data relating to one or more pulse characteristics, wavelength characteristics, coherent source performance, or properties of the optical system 22 .
- the controller 18 may be configured to store one or more data tables, algorithms, formulas, and the like therein.
- the controller 18 may be configured to store data relating the dispersion of one or more optical devices used within the optical system 22 .
- this data may be provided to the controller 18 by a user, determined from preset configurations of the dispersion compensation device 14 , or provided by one or more sensors 26 , 26 ′ in communication with the coherent source 12 .
- the controller 18 may be configured to calculate the dispersion characteristics of an optical system 14 based on known dispersion characteristics of the individual optical components therein which may be stored in the controller 18 , or provided thereto by an external source.
- the controller 18 may be in communication with an external information source such as a user-accessible computer.
- the present system may be configured to have a pre-generated wavelength-based dispersion table manually input by a user into the controller 18 thereby permitting the dispersion compensation device 14 to be adjusted in response to the inputted table.
- the user may input the dispersion characteristics of the optical system 22 at a given wavelength into the controller 18 .
- the controller 18 may be configured to calculate the dispersion characteristics of the optical system 22 at various wavelengths and adjust the dispersion compensation device 14 to output an appropriately chirped signal 20 accordingly.
- At least one optical system 22 may be in communication with the dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 .
- the optical system 22 may include one or more lenses, mirrors, beam splitters, spatial filters, attenuators, beam profilers, gratings, etalons, acousto-optical devices, modulators, optical crystals and fibers, bulk materials, telescopes, microscopes, non-linear devices, and the like.
- the various components forming the optical system 22 have dispersion and introduce chirp into an optical signal propagating through the optical apparatus 10 .
- the optical system 22 introduces positive chirp into an optical signal propagating through it.
- the optical system 22 introduces negative chirp to an optical signal propagating through it.
- the chirp introduced into an optical signal by the optical system 22 may be known and provided to the controller 18 by the user.
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may be adjusted by the controller 18 to pre-compensate the chirp introduced into the signal by the optical system 22 .
- the controller 18 may be configured to access data stored on the controller 18 relating to the dispersion characteristics of various elements or devices used within the optical system 22 , to calculate the dispersion of the entire optical system 22 therefrom, and to adjust the dispersion compensating device 14 accordingly.
- the dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 optionally may include one or more sensors 26 therein.
- the dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 may include a first sensor 26 and at least a second sensor 26 ′.
- the first sensor 26 , the second sensor 26 ′, or both may be configured to measure any variety of optical characteristics, including, without limitation, wavelength, pulse energy, repetition rate, pulse width, peak intensity fluorescence intensity, multi-photon fluorescence intensity, SHG intensity, 2-photon absorption, and multi-photon absorption and the like,
- the first sensor 26 and the second sensor 26 ′ are configured to measure different optical characteristics of the dispersion compensated output signal 24 .
- the first sensor 26 may be configured to measure pulse width, pulse chirp, and/or peak intensity of the dispersion compensated output signal 24 while the second sensor 26 ′ is configured to measure the wavelength thereof.
- the first and second sensors 26 , 26 ′ are configured to measure the same optical characteristics.
- additional sensors may be positioned within the dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 and the optical system 22 .
- the first and second sensors 26 , 26 ′ may be positioned anywhere within the dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 and the optical system 22 .
- the controller 18 may be in communication with at least one component within the dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 and the optical system 22 .
- the controller 18 may also be coupled to or otherwise in communication with at least one of the coherent source 12 , the optical system 22 , the first sensor 26 , and/or the second sensor 26 ′.
- the controller 18 may be coupled to the coherent source 12 and configured to adjust and monitor one of output wavelength, pulse repetition rate, pulse width, peak intensity, and the like.
- the controller 18 is in communication with the dispersion compensation device 14 and the first sensor 26 .
- the dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 enables the user to automatically adjust or optimize one or more pulse characteristics of the compensated output signal 22 while the wavelength is tuned, in contrast to prior art systems which relied on tedious manual optimization techniques.
- the first sensor 26 is used to characterize the beam in means of pulse width, pulse chirp, or peak intensity.
- the user adjusts the controller 18 to change the configuration of the dispersion compensation device 14 to optimize the signal at the sensor 26 .
- This value is stored as one configuration in a table within the controller 18 . This procedure may be repeated for other wavelengths.
- the sensor 26 may be removed from the apparatus 10 . All table entries may be used to calculate the configuration of the dispersion compensation device 14 for all other accessible wavelengths.
- the wavelength information may be received by the controller 18 from the coherent source 12 , the second sensor 26 ′, or from an external source.
- FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of an automatic dispersion compensating optical apparatus 10 .
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may be positioned within the coherent source 12 .
- the dispersion compensation device 14 may be positioned within the optical system 22 .
- embodiments disclosed herein are illustrative of the principles of the invention. Other modifications may be employed which are within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the devices disclosed in the present application are not limited to that precisely as shown and described herein.
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Abstract
Description
- The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/983,583, filed on Nov. 9, 2007, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/857, 871, filed Nov. 9, 2006, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety herein.
- Sources of coherent optical pulses, such as lasers, optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers, etc., configured to produce outputs having very high peak intensities are used in a number of research applications. Such sources are commonly used in applications that include multi-photon microscopy, materials testing, and nonlinear spectroscopy. Many of these applications require high peak intensities and pulsewidths in the sub-picosecond pulse duration regime.
- Typically, these sources of coherent optical pulses are used in conjunction with an optical system comprised of one or more optical components, including, without limitation, lenses, mirrors, modulators, acousto-optical modulators, optical crystals, etalons, gratings, optical fibers, and the like. The coherent optical pulses may propagate through a variety of materials, including, without limitation, air, glass, optical coatings applied to one or more optical devices, and the like. The amount of time required for the light to propagate through various optical components often varies as a function of wavelength, this property of optical components is called dispersion. As a result, a chirp may be introduced in the pulsed optical signal propagating through these components, i.e. different wavelength components are shifted in time within the pulse. As such, the pulse duration of the optical pulse becomes longer. Dispersion of an optical component is positive when longer wavelength light travels faster through the optical component than shorter wavelength light. If an optical pulse passes through an optical component with positive dispersion, the pulse becomes positively chirped, i.e. longer wavelength components are ahead of shorter wavelength components within the pulse. In ultra short coherent optical pulse applications (e.g. sub-picosecond and femtosecond) the high peak intensity optical pulse may be substantially degraded during its propagation through the optical system. For example, the peak intensity may be drastically reduced as the pulsewidth increases. Higher order distortion of the pulses is also common.
- In response thereto, commonly a dispersion compensator may be positioned within the optical system. Typically, the dispersion compensator is configured to produce a dispersion of an opposite sign to the dispersion of the optical system and, ideally, of the same absolute value. For example, if the optical components within the optical system have positive dispersion and therefore introduce positive chirp into the optical signal, the dispersion compensator is configured to have negative dispersion and introduce negative chirp into the optical signal, thereby negating the positive dispersion of the optical system. Therefore, the pulsewidth in the output of the optical system is short again. While this approach has proven somewhat successful in the past, a number of shortcomings have been identified. For example, dispersion of both the optical system and the dispersion compensator changes significantly with pulse wavelength and not in the same manner. As such, applications requiring wide wavelength ranges require extensive tuning processes to produce compressed pulses over the full wavelength range of the optical system. These tuning processes tend to be time-consuming manual endeavors. Further, these tuning processes may need to be repeated frequently.
- In light of the foregoing, there is an ongoing need for a system and method for automatically compensating for the dispersion for coherent optical pulses over a broad range of wavelengths.
- The present application is directed to an apparatus and method for the automated compensation of dispersion over a broad wavelength range for coherent optical pulses. In one embodiment, the present application discloses an automatic dispersion compensating optical apparatus configured to change chirp introduced into an optical signal by an optical system in optical communication with the dispersion compensating optical apparatus and includes at least optical parametric oscillator configured to output at least one optical signal, at least one dispersion compensation device configured to receive the optical signal from the optical parametric oscillator, and at least one controller in communication with the dispersion compensation device and configured to adjust chirp introduced into the optical signal by the dispersion compensation device as the wavelength of the optical signal is varied.
- In another embodiment, the present application is directed to a method of automatically adjusting chirp of at least one optical signal to the desired value as the signal propagates through an optical system and includes providing a dispersion compensation device having at least one controller in communication therewith, directing at least one optical signal from an optical parametric oscillator into the dispersion compensation device, sending a control signal from the controller to the dispersion compensation device to automatically adjust the dispersion compensation device to introduce the desired chirp into the optical signal as the wavelength of the signal is tuned, and outputting the optical signal into an optical system in optical communication with the dispersion compensation device.
- Other features and advantages of the embodiments of the apparatus and method for the automated compensation of dispersion over a broad wavelength range for coherent optical pulses as disclosed herein will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.
- Various embodiments of apparatus and method for the automated compensation of dispersion over a broad wavelength range for coherent optical pulses will be explained in more detail by way of the accompanying drawings, wherein:
-
FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of an embodiment of an automated dispersion compensating optical apparatus. -
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an optical apparatus having a dispersion compensation device therein. As shown inFIG. 1 , the dispersion compensatingoptical apparatus 10 includes at least one wavelength-tunable coherent source oflight pulses 12 and at least onedispersion compensation device 14 in optical communication with thecoherent source 12. In one embodiment, thecoherent source 12 comprises a Ti:Sapphire laser. In an alternate embodiment, thecoherent source 12 may comprise one or more Cr:Fosterite lasers, Cr:LiCAF lasers, Cr:LiSAF lasers, Yb:KYW lasers, Yb:KGW lasers, dye lasers, optical parametric oscillators, master oscillator power amplifiers, optical parametric amplifiers, and any other pulsed coherent light sources. As such, in one embodiment the coherent source is tunable over a range of wavelengths from about 300 nm to about 3000 nm. In another embodiment, the coherent source is tunable over a range of wavelengths from about 500 nm to about 1500 nm. In another embodiment, the coherent source may be tunable over a range of wavelengths from about 600 nm to about 1300 nm. In one embodiment the coherent source produces optical pulses of shorter than one picosecond pulse widths. - Referring again to
FIG. 1 , the coherentoptical source 12 emits one or more optical signals orbeams 16 consisting of a sequence of optical pulses which are directed into thedispersion compensation device 14. In one embodiment, thedispersion compensation device 14 includes one or more prisms. In another embodiment, thedispersion compensation device 14 may include one or more prisms, gratings, etalons, chirp mirrors, spatial light modulators, lenses, optical mounts, optical stages, optical fibers, bulk materials, motors, actuators, Gires Tournois interferometers, and the like. Furthermore, one or more of the optical components contained within thedispersion compensation device 14 may be adjustably positioned therein. For example, at least one element within the dispersion compensation device may be configured to translate axially or laterally, to rotate, or to tilt, and/or any combination thereof. As such, thedispersion compensation device 14 may include one or more selectively positionable optical mounts, stages, actuators, motors, positioning devices, and the like. In one embodiment, thedispersion compensation device 14 has a throughput of greater than about 70%. In an alternate embodiment, the dispersion compensation device has a throughput of greater than about 80%. - In one embodiment, the
dispersion compensation device 14 may be configured to introduce desired negative or positive chirp into the outputoptical signal 20 shown inFIG. 1 . For example, assuming that theoptical system 22 inherently introduces a positive chirp into an incident optical signal, thedispersion compensation device 14 may be configured to output a negativelychirped output 20 to theoptical system 22. In one embodiment, the magnitude of the negative chirp in theoutput signal 20 is approximately equal to the positive chirp to be introduced into the optical signal by theoptical system 22. As such, thedispersion compensation device 14 may be configured to provide a negative dispersion of approximately the same value as a positive dispersion of theoptical system 22 at all operation wavelengths in order to fully compensate for the pulse degradation caused by the dispersiveoptical system 22. Further, thisdispersion compensation device 14 can be adjusted for the second order dispersion (GDD: group delay dispersion) as well as any higher order dispersion and/or alternate types of dispersion, and can be used to adjust the pulse duration or peak intensity of the optical pulses. In another embodiment, the magnitude of the negative chirp in theoutput signal 20 is greater than the positive chirp to be introduced into the optical signal by theoptical system 22. In another embodiment, the magnitude of the negative chirp in theoutput signal 20 is less than the positive chirp to be introduced into the optical signal by theoptical system 22. - As shown in
FIG. 1 , thedispersion compensation device 14 is in communication with at least onecontroller 18. In one embodiment, thecontroller 18 may be configured to provide one ormore control signals 28 to thedispersion compensation device 14. In addition, thecontroller 18 may provide one or more control signals to thecoherent source 12. Further, thecontroller 18 may be configured to store data relating to one or more pulse characteristics, wavelength characteristics, coherent source performance, or properties of theoptical system 22. In another embodiment, thecontroller 18 may be configured to store one or more data tables, algorithms, formulas, and the like therein. For example, thecontroller 18 may be configured to store data relating the dispersion of one or more optical devices used within theoptical system 22. Optionally, this data may be provided to thecontroller 18 by a user, determined from preset configurations of thedispersion compensation device 14, or provided by one ormore sensors coherent source 12. For example, thecontroller 18 may be configured to calculate the dispersion characteristics of anoptical system 14 based on known dispersion characteristics of the individual optical components therein which may be stored in thecontroller 18, or provided thereto by an external source. As such, thecontroller 18 may be in communication with an external information source such as a user-accessible computer. For example, the present system may be configured to have a pre-generated wavelength-based dispersion table manually input by a user into thecontroller 18 thereby permitting thedispersion compensation device 14 to be adjusted in response to the inputted table. Optionally, the user may input the dispersion characteristics of theoptical system 22 at a given wavelength into thecontroller 18. Thereafter, thecontroller 18 may be configured to calculate the dispersion characteristics of theoptical system 22 at various wavelengths and adjust thedispersion compensation device 14 to output an appropriately chirpedsignal 20 accordingly. - Referring again to
FIG. 1 , at least oneoptical system 22 may be in communication with the dispersion compensatingoptical apparatus 10. Theoptical system 22 may include one or more lenses, mirrors, beam splitters, spatial filters, attenuators, beam profilers, gratings, etalons, acousto-optical devices, modulators, optical crystals and fibers, bulk materials, telescopes, microscopes, non-linear devices, and the like. Typically, the various components forming theoptical system 22 have dispersion and introduce chirp into an optical signal propagating through theoptical apparatus 10. In one embodiment, theoptical system 22 introduces positive chirp into an optical signal propagating through it. In an alternate embodiment, theoptical system 22 introduces negative chirp to an optical signal propagating through it. In one embodiment, the chirp introduced into an optical signal by theoptical system 22 may be known and provided to thecontroller 18 by the user. As such, thedispersion compensation device 14 may be adjusted by thecontroller 18 to pre-compensate the chirp introduced into the signal by theoptical system 22. In another embodiment, thecontroller 18 may be configured to access data stored on thecontroller 18 relating to the dispersion characteristics of various elements or devices used within theoptical system 22, to calculate the dispersion of the entireoptical system 22 therefrom, and to adjust thedispersion compensating device 14 accordingly. - In one embodiment the dispersion compensating
optical apparatus 10 optionally may include one ormore sensors 26 therein. For example, in one embodiment, the dispersion compensatingoptical apparatus 10 may include afirst sensor 26 and at least asecond sensor 26′. Thefirst sensor 26, thesecond sensor 26′, or both may be configured to measure any variety of optical characteristics, including, without limitation, wavelength, pulse energy, repetition rate, pulse width, peak intensity fluorescence intensity, multi-photon fluorescence intensity, SHG intensity, 2-photon absorption, and multi-photon absorption and the like, In one embodiment, thefirst sensor 26 and thesecond sensor 26′ are configured to measure different optical characteristics of the dispersion compensatedoutput signal 24. For example, thefirst sensor 26 may be configured to measure pulse width, pulse chirp, and/or peak intensity of the dispersion compensatedoutput signal 24 while thesecond sensor 26′ is configured to measure the wavelength thereof. In an alternate embodiment, the first andsecond sensors optical apparatus 10 and theoptical system 22. Similarly, the first andsecond sensors optical apparatus 10 and theoptical system 22. - Referring again to
FIG. 1 , optionally thecontroller 18 may be in communication with at least one component within the dispersion compensatingoptical apparatus 10 and theoptical system 22. For example, as shown inFIG. 1 , thecontroller 18 may also be coupled to or otherwise in communication with at least one of thecoherent source 12, theoptical system 22, thefirst sensor 26, and/or thesecond sensor 26′. For example, thecontroller 18 may be coupled to thecoherent source 12 and configured to adjust and monitor one of output wavelength, pulse repetition rate, pulse width, peak intensity, and the like. In one embodiment thecontroller 18 is in communication with thedispersion compensation device 14 and thefirst sensor 26. As a result, assuming thefirst sensor 26 is configured to sense one or more pulse characteristics of an optical signal, the dispersion compensatingoptical apparatus 10 enables the user to automatically adjust or optimize one or more pulse characteristics of the compensatedoutput signal 22 while the wavelength is tuned, in contrast to prior art systems which relied on tedious manual optimization techniques. - In another embodiment, the
first sensor 26 is used to characterize the beam in means of pulse width, pulse chirp, or peak intensity. For at least one wavelength, the user adjusts thecontroller 18 to change the configuration of thedispersion compensation device 14 to optimize the signal at thesensor 26. This value is stored as one configuration in a table within thecontroller 18. This procedure may be repeated for other wavelengths. After calibration thedispersion compensating apparatus 10 at one or more wavelengths thesensor 26 may be removed from theapparatus 10. All table entries may be used to calculate the configuration of thedispersion compensation device 14 for all other accessible wavelengths. The wavelength information may be received by thecontroller 18 from thecoherent source 12, thesecond sensor 26′, or from an external source. -
FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of an automatic dispersion compensatingoptical apparatus 10. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various elements thereof may be positioned at various locations throughout the system. For example, thedispersion compensation device 14 may be positioned within thecoherent source 12. In another embodiment, thedispersion compensation device 14 may be positioned within theoptical system 22. As such, embodiments disclosed herein are illustrative of the principles of the invention. Other modifications may be employed which are within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the devices disclosed in the present application are not limited to that precisely as shown and described herein.
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CN107247380A (en) * | 2017-08-11 | 2017-10-13 | 深圳大学 | A kind of pair of chirp frequency spectrum photoparametric amplifier and amplification method |
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JP2017513211A (en) * | 2014-02-28 | 2017-05-25 | イムラ アメリカ インコーポレイテッド | Generation and emission of multiwavelength ultrashort pulses applied to microscopes |
CN109870107B (en) * | 2019-03-28 | 2021-01-01 | 北京同创微纳科技有限公司 | Device for mutual calibration among multiple nano displacement sensors |
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US20080112709A1 (en) | 2008-05-15 |
US7962046B2 (en) | 2011-06-14 |
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