Energetic ultrafast fiber laser sources tunable in 1030-1215 nm for deep tissue multi-photon microscopy

We demonstrate an energy scalable approach to implement ultrafast fiber laser sources suitable for deep tissue multi-photon microscopy imaging. Enabled by fiber-optic nonlinearities (dominated by self-phase modulation), these unique ultrafast sources produce nearly transform-limited pulses of 50-90 fs in duration with the center wavelength tunable in the wavelength range of 1030-1215 nm. The resulting pulse energy can be scaled up to 20 nJ by optimizing fiber dispersion, shortening fiber length, and using large-mode-area fibers. We applied such an energetic source to a proof-of-principle study of ex vivo human skin based on harmonics (i. e., second-harmonic generation and third-harmonic generation) imaging. This new type of fiber-format energetic ultrafast source provides a robust solution for multiphoton microscopy applications. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America