High power wavelength linearly swept mode locked fiber laser for OCT imaging

We report a long coherence length, high power, and wide tuning range wavelength linearly swept fiber mode-locked laser based on polygon scanning filters. An output power of 52.6 mW with 112 nm wavelength tuning range at 62.6 kHz sweeping rate has been achieved. The coherence length is long enough to enable imaging over 8.1 mm depth when the sensitivity decreases by 8.7 dB (1/e(2)). The Fourier components are still distinguishable when the ranging depth exceeds 15 mm, which corresponds to 30 mm optical path difference in air. The parameters that are critical to OCT imaging quality such as polygon filter linewidth, the laser coherence length, output power, axial resolution and the Fourier sensitivity have been investigated theoretically and experimentally. Since the wavelength is swept linearly with time, an analytical approach has been developed for transforming the interference signal from equidistant spacing in wavelength to equidistant spacing in frequency. Axial resolution of 7.9 mu m in air has been achieved experimentally that approaches the theoretical limit. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.