Users and suppliers of multiphoton microscopy recognize the rapid growth in use-cases of non-linear imaging techniques – from advanced neuroscience to embryology, from H&E histology augmentation/replacement to clinical endoscopy. This variety of applications, together with the expanding number of probes, beam manipulation, delivery and excitation schemes, is a strong driving force for the continuous advancements in parameters and functionality of the commercial femtosecond laser sources used for these applications. In this presentation we will review novel developments in femtosecond lasers and their interplay with emerging techniques. Among these, we will look at 3-photon excitation microscopy, 2-photon holographic imaging and optogenetic stimulation, and their enablement of all-optical investigation of neural activities. We will also describe how an increasing level of optical integration helps to streamline the laser usage in the laboratory and (pre-)clinical environment.
Ultrafast laser sources are a key enabling technology for nonlinear excitation in multiphoton microscopy. Rapid developments in the last five years have realized a wider scope of laser platforms that address emerging opportunities for (pre)clinical applications in nonlinear microscopy, along with additional optical functionality such as integrated power modulation options and higher energy regimes that enable deeper imaging via 3-photon excitation. In this presentation we will review the latest developments in ultrafast lasers and their impacts in the field of nonlinear microscopy.
We discuss the key trends in two and three photon microscopy driving new laser technologies. When distilled, these trends are moving down three paths, for mainstream, tunable 2 photon excitation sources, advanced high energy sources for especially for brain imaging and compact, fixed wavelength OEM friendly lasers.
We report what we believe is the first demonstration of a temporal soliton bound state in semiconductor disk laser. The laser was passively mode-locked using a quantum dot based semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (QD-SESAM). Two mode-locking regimes were observed where the laser would emit single or closely spaced double pulses (soliton bound state regime) per cavity round-trip. The pulses in soliton bound state regime were spaced by discrete, fixed time duration. We use a system of delay differential equations to model the dynamics of our device.
Electrically pumped vertical external cavity surface emitting laser is passively mode-locked at record-low repetition rate of 216 MHz demonstrating potential peak power scalability. A quantum dot saturable absorber is used to achieve stable operation.
We present an overview of recent advances in generation of non-diffracting (Bessel) beams from surface-emitting lasers,
such as electrically and optically pumped VECSELs, and discuss their applications in optical trapping/tweezing and
manipulation of micromachines. Our experiments on VECSEL-generated watt power level Bessel beams with central
lobe diameters of a few to tens micrometers suggest that the semiconductor surface-emitting lasers are the best
candidates for replacement of gas and solid-state counterparts for power-demanding applications in optical manipulation.
The latest achievements of quantum dot based semiconductor disk lasers are reviewed. Several lasers operating at 1040
nm - 1260 nm were studied. All the structures were grown with molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates. The
number of quantum dot layers was varied and the gain was provided either by the ground or the excited state transition of
the quantum dots. Frequency doubling of the lasers was demonstrated and the dual-gain laser geometry was found to be
practical solution for intracavity frequency conversion. Intracavity heat spreader and thinned device heat management
approaches are studied and compared.
Novel materials, notably quantum-dot (QD) semiconductor structures offer the unique possibility of combining
exploitable spectral broadening of both gain and absorption with ultrafast carrier dynamic properties. Thanks to these
characteristics QD-based devices have enhanced the properties of ultrashort pulse lasers and opened up new possibilities
in ultrafast science and technology. In this paper we review the recent progress on the development of novel quantumdot
SESAM structures for different lasers. We also demonstrate that QD structures can be designed to provide compact
and efficient ultrashort pulse laser sources with high and low repetition rates.
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