Patent ID: 8923350

Claim:
Optical pulse source for generating optical supercontinuum pulses with improved flexibility and stability, comprising: an optical pump laser operable to generate optical pump pulses at a pump pulse repetition rate Rf; a nonlinear optical element comprising an optical fiber arranged to receive the optical pump pulses and configured to generate therefrom optical supercontinuum pulses; a gating device provided between the pump laser and the optical fiber and operable to selectively control the launch of pump pulses into the optical fiber at a reduced, lower repetition rate Rr=Rf/N, wherein N is a positive integer, in order to generate optical supercontinuum pulses at different user selectable repetition rates lower than the pump pulse repetition rate; a first optical fiber amplifier; a second optical fiber amplifier; wherein said gating device is provided between said first and second optical fiber amplifiers and said first and second amplifiers are located between said optical pump laser and the optical fiber; a wavelength tunable optical bandpass filter configured to receive optical supercontinuum pulses having the reduced, lower repetition rate Rr and wavelength filter the pulses; wherein the optical source is configured such that the optical fiber can generate optical supercontinuum pulses having a supercontinuum spanning from below 450 nm to greater than 2000 nm; and wherein said optical pulse source comprises an all-fiber source wherein said optical pump laser comprises a fiber oscillator, said gating device comprises a fiber coupled optical modulator, and wherein the optical pulse source is configured such that optical pump pulses are launched into the optical fiber without the use of free space optics.