Superluminescent Sources | <<< | >>> | Feedback |
You can buy superluminescent sources from:
- EXALOS: superluminescent light-emitting diodes (SLED), with emission wavelengths between 400 and 1700 nm, high output power and broad optical bandwidth, speckle free, suited for optical coherence tomography, fiber-optic gyroscopes and fiber-optic sensors
Ask RP Photonics what kind of superluminescent source is most suitable for your application.
Acronym: SFS
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 substantially 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 luminescent light. According to the large emission bandwidth (compared with that of, e.g., a laser), the temporal coherence is very low. This makes such devices interesting for applications such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) (e.g. in the medical sector), device characterization (e.g. in optical fiber communications), gyroscopes, and fiber-optic sensors.
The main kinds of superluminescent sources are superluminescent diodes (SLDs) and fiber amplifiers. Fiber-based sources can provide much higher output powers, whereas SLDs are much more compact and also cheaper.
For all high-gain ASE sources, it is very important carefully to suppress any optical feedback, e.g. via reflections from fiber ends, because this can lead to parasitic lasing. For fiber-based devices, 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 J. Sel. Top. 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) |
| [7] | D. Y. Shen et al., “Broadband Tm-doped superfluorescent fiber source with 11 W single-ended output power”, Opt. Express 16 (15), 11021 (2008) |
| [8] | M. Blazek et al., “Unifying intensity noise and second-order coherence properties of amplified spontaneous emission sources”, Opt. Lett. 36 (17), 3455 (2011) |
See also: superluminescence, amplified spontaneous emission, superluminescent diodes, white light sources, coherence
