Hannover 2003 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik
Q 39: Laser in der Medizin
Q 39.1: Group Report
Thursday, March 27, 2003, 14:00–14:30, F107
Ti:sapphire channel-waveguide broadband light sources for optical coherence tomography — •Markus Pollnau1, Aurelian Crunteanu1, Laetitia Laversenne1, Simon Rivier1, Christos Grivas2, David P. Shepherd2, and Robert W. Eason2 — 1Applied Photonics Laboratory, Institute for Biomedical Imaging, Optics, and Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland — 2Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, United Kingdom
We report on the fabrication of Ti:sapphire active channel waveguides. We created up to 5-µm high ribs in 10-µm thick Ti:sapphire planar waveguides by reactive ion etching or ion milling. Following excitation by a green laser, the rib structures showed fundamental-mode channel-waveguide fluorescence emission with up to 310 µW output power. Such devices are of interest as broadband light sources in low-coherence interferometry. The higher confinement and significantly improved output power over Ti:sapphire bulk structures ensures efficient coupling to single-mode fiber interferometers and provides a better signal-to-noise ratio. Ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) is demonstrated. Ti:sapphire channel-waveguide superluminescent light sources provide a simple and robust alternative to femtosecond lasers for ultrahigh-resolution OCT imaging.