Nonlinear optical frequency conversion of an amplified Fourier Domain Mode Locked (FDML) laser

We report on the highly efficient non-linear optical frequency conversion of the wavelength swept output from a Fourier Domain Mode Locked (FDML) laser. Different concepts for power scaling of FDML lasers by post-amplification with active fibers are presented. A two-stage post-amplification of an FDML laser with an amplification factor of 300 up to a peak power of 1.5 W is used to supply sufficient power levels for non-linear conversion. Using a single-mode dispersion shifted fiber (DSF), we convert this amplified output that covers the region between 1541 nm and 1545 nm to a wavelength range from 1572 nm to 1663 nm via modulation instability (MI). For this four wave mixing process we observe an efficiency of similar to 40%. The anti-Stokes signal between 1435 nm and 1516 nm was observed with lower conversion efficiency. In addition to shifting the wavelength, the effect of MI also enables a substantial increase in the wavelength sweep rate of the FDML laser by a factor of similar to 50 to 0.55 nm/ns. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America