Superluminescent Sources | previous | next | feedback |
You can buy superluminescent sources from:
- EXALOS: superluminescent diodes, with emission wavelengths between 700 and 1700 nm, high output power and broad optical bandwidth, suited for optical coherence tomography, fiber-optic gyroscopes and fiber-optic sensors
- NP Photonics: narrow-linewidth fiber lasers and ASE sources, suitable for fiber-optic sensing
Ask RP Photonics what kind of superluminescent source is most suitable for your application.
Definition: optical sources based on superluminescence
Superluminescent sources (also called ASE sources) are broadband light sources (white light sources) based on superluminescence. (They are often erroneously called superfluorescent sources, which would be based on the quite different phenomenon of superfluorescence.)
A superluminescent source has a very low temporal coherence. It contains a laser gain medium which is excited in order to emit and then amplify fluorescence light. According to the large emission bandwidth (compared with that e.g. of a laser), the temporal coherence is very low. This makes such devices interesting for applications like optical coherence tomography (OCT) (e.g. in the medical sector), device characterization (e.g. in optical fiber communications), gyroscopes, and for fiber-optic sensors.
The main kinds of superluminescent sources are superluminescent diodes (SLDs) and fiber amplifiers. Particularly for fiber devices, it is very important to carefully suppress any optical feedback e.g. via reflections from fiber ends, because this can lead to parasitic lasing. Rayleigh scattering from within the fiber may introduce the final performance limitations.
Figure 1: Spectra of ASE from a fiber amplifier, calculated for different pump power levels. With increasing power, the spectrum shifts toward shorter wavelengths (where the gain grows more quickly) and becomes narrower. The former effect is typical for sources with quasi-three-level gain media, whereas the latter occurs in essentially all types of superluminescent sources.
Bibliography
| [1] | M. J. F. Digonnet, "Theory of superfluorescent fiber lasers", J. Lightwave Technol. LT-4, 1631 (1986) |
| [2] | P. F. Wysocki et al., "Broadband fiber sources for gyros", Proc. SPIE 1585, 371 (1992) |
| [3] | P. F. Wysocki et al., "Characteristics of erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber sources for interferometric sensor applications", J. Lightwave Technol. 12, 550 (1994) |
| [4] | R. Paschotta et al., "Efficient superfluorescent light sources with broad bandwidth", IEEE Sel. Topics in Quantum Electron. 3, 1097 (1997) |
| [5] | P. Wang and W. A. Clarkson, "High-power, single-mode, linearly polarized, ytterbium-doped fiber superfluorescent source", Opt. Lett. 32 (17), 2605 (2007) |
| [6] | G. Smith et al., "High-power near-diffraction-limited solid-state amplified spontaneous emission laser devices", Opt. Lett. 32 (13), 1911 (2007) |
See also: superluminescence, amplified spontaneous emission, superluminescent diodes, white light sources, coherence
