S C L broadband source based on semiconductor optical amplifiers and erbium-doped fiber for optical coherence tomography

Abstract

Broadband sources (BBSs) are commonly used in a wide range of applications in optical communication systems and biophotonics. They are particularly useful tools for Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which is a biomedical imaging technique that uses low-coherence light sources. In order to obtain high image quality, we have developed a novel, spectrally-flat S+C+L band source with > 120 nm bandwidth and more than 4 mW output power based on two cascaded semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) mixed with an Erbium-doped fiber (EDF) amplifier. Bandwidth and output power improvements are achieved by modifying the former configuration and mixing the EDF with the first SOA before amplification in ..