Microstructured fiber and supercontinuum light source
First Claim
1. A source of optical supercontinuum generation, the source comprising:
- a microstructured optical fiber and a pump laser source adapted to generate pump radiation at a pump wavelength and to launch said pump radiation into said microstructured optical fiber at an input end thereof,wherein the microstructured optical fiber has a length and a longitudinal axis along its length and comprises a core region and a cladding region surrounding the core region,said cladding region comprises a cladding background material and a plurality of cladding features within the cladding background material,said cladding features being arranged around the core region,wherein said cladding region in at least a length section of the fiber comprises an inner cladding region comprising an innermost ring of cladding features having a first characteristic diameter (d1) and an outer cladding region comprising at least one outer cladding ring of outer cladding features,wherein each ring of cladding features comprises bridges of cladding background material separating adjacent features of the ring, wherein the bridges of the innermost ring have an average minimum width (w1), where an average minimum width (w2) of the bridges of an outer ring are at least about 10% larger than the average minimum width (w1) of the bridges of the innermost ring, and wherein the core region has a diameter of at least about 2μ
m, said microstructured optical fiber configured to provide supercontinuum radiation including light at wavelengths below 500 nm upon launch of said pump radiation into said microstructured optical fiber.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A microstructured optical fiber includes a core region and a cladding region which surrounds the core region. The cladding region includes a plurality of cladding features within a cladding background material, wherein the cladding region includes an inner cladding region with at least one inner ring of cladding features and an outer cladding region with at least three outer cladding rings of outer cladding features. The inner cladding features have a first characteristic diameter and the outer cladding region includes a plurality of outer cladding features having a characteristic diameter smaller than the first characteristic diameter. The first characteristic diameter is at least about 10% larger than an average diameter of the outer cladding features and the core region has a diameter of at least about 2 μm.
25 Citations
26 Claims
-
1. A source of optical supercontinuum generation, the source comprising:
-
a microstructured optical fiber and a pump laser source adapted to generate pump radiation at a pump wavelength and to launch said pump radiation into said microstructured optical fiber at an input end thereof, wherein the microstructured optical fiber has a length and a longitudinal axis along its length and comprises a core region and a cladding region surrounding the core region, said cladding region comprises a cladding background material and a plurality of cladding features within the cladding background material, said cladding features being arranged around the core region, wherein said cladding region in at least a length section of the fiber comprises an inner cladding region comprising an innermost ring of cladding features having a first characteristic diameter (d1) and an outer cladding region comprising at least one outer cladding ring of outer cladding features, wherein each ring of cladding features comprises bridges of cladding background material separating adjacent features of the ring, wherein the bridges of the innermost ring have an average minimum width (w1), where an average minimum width (w2) of the bridges of an outer ring are at least about 10% larger than the average minimum width (w1) of the bridges of the innermost ring, and wherein the core region has a diameter of at least about 2μ
m, said microstructured optical fiber configured to provide supercontinuum radiation including light at wavelengths below 500 nm upon launch of said pump radiation into said microstructured optical fiber. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A microstructured optical fiber having a length and a longitudinal axis along its length and comprising:
-
a core region capable of guiding light along said longitudinal axis and a cladding region which surrounds the core region, said cladding region comprising a cladding background material and a plurality of cladding features within the cladding background material, said cladding features being arranged around the core region, wherein said cladding region in at least a section of the fiber comprises an inner cladding region comprising at least one inner ring of inner cladding features having a first characteristic diameter (d1) and an outer cladding region comprising at least three outer cladding rings of outer cladding features, said inner cladding region being adjacent to the core region and said outer cladding region being adjacent to the inner cladding region, wherein each ring of cladding features comprises bridges of cladding background material separating adjacent features of the ring, wherein the bridges of the at least one inner ring having an average minimum width (w1) of about 1.2μ
m or less and the bridges of at least one of said outer cladding rings having an average minimum width (w2), which is at least about 10% larger than the average minimum width (w1) of the at least one inner ring bridges,wherein the core region has a diameter of at least about 2μ
m,andwherein the microstructured optical fiber is configured to provide supercontinuum radiation including light at wavelengths below 500 nm when pumped by pump radiation generated by a pump laser source. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
-
-
24. An illumination source suitable for use in at least one of endoscopy, surgical microscopy, confocal microscopy, optical coherence tomography (OTC), multi modal illumination, autofluorescence, fluorescence lifetime imaging measurements (FLIM), total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy;
- fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), broadband spectroscopy, nanophotonics, flow cytometry, industrial inspection, ringdown spectroscopy, analytical spectroscopy, molecular imaging, optogenetics, displays, diffuse component characterization, solar cell characterization, quantum dot characterization, plasmonics, dispersive Fourier-Transformation spectroscopy and/or atomic trapping applications, the illumination source comprising;
a source of optical supercontinuum generation comprising a microstructured optical fiber, a pump laser source and an optical filter, wherein the microstructured optical fiber comprises a core region and a cladding region surrounding the core region, said cladding region comprising a cladding background material and a plurality of cladding features within the cladding background material, wherein said cladding region comprises an inner cladding region comprising at least one inner ring of inner cladding features having a first characteristic diameter (d1) and an outer cladding region comprising at least one outer cladding ring of outer cladding features, wherein each ring of cladding features comprises bridges of cladding background material separating adjacent features of the ring, wherein the bridges of the at least one inner ring having an average minimum width (w1), and the bridges of said at least one outer cladding rings having an average minimum width (w2), where the average minimum width (w2) of the at least one outer ring bridges is at least about 10% larger than the average minimum width (w1) of the at least one inner ring bridges, wherein the core region has a diameter of at least about 2μ
m, andwherein the microstructured optical fiber is configured to provide supercontinuum radiation including light at wavelengths below 500 nm when pumped by pump radiation generated by the pump laser source. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
- fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), broadband spectroscopy, nanophotonics, flow cytometry, industrial inspection, ringdown spectroscopy, analytical spectroscopy, molecular imaging, optogenetics, displays, diffuse component characterization, solar cell characterization, quantum dot characterization, plasmonics, dispersive Fourier-Transformation spectroscopy and/or atomic trapping applications, the illumination source comprising;
Specification