Characterization of Fourier domain modelocked wavelength swept laser for optical coherence tomography imaging

We present characteristics of a wavelength swept laser with a scanning fiber Fabry-Perot filter at 1300 nm. We investigate the dependence of the scanning frequencies in the swept laser. In conventional wavelength swept lasers, the relative intensity of the laser output decreases significantly as the scanning frequency increases. The peak wavelength of the output spectrum is red-shifted due to the nonlinear frequency downshifting in the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). In the Fourier domain mode-locked (FDML) wavelength swept laser, we investigate transient intensity profiles and the full width at half maximum in response to the injection currents and detuning of the scanning frequency. The degradation of the scanning range of the swept laser is caused by the deviation from the scanning frequency at 45.6 kHz. In addition, transient intensity profiles show significant asymmetric behavior in response to the detuned frequencies. Finally, the axial resolution and sensitivity as a function of imaging depth are analyzed for both forward and backward scans. With the FDML laser, the detection sensitivity up to 102 dB is achieved for the backward scans. The backward scans exhibit higher axial resolution and sensitivity than the forward scan. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America