587 nm nanosecond optical pulse generation by synchronously-driven gain-switched laser diodes with optical injection locking

Abstract

We describe a novel optical pulse source that can generate yellow-orange optical pulses based on the synchronization of two gain-switched laser diodes under continuous-wave laser light injection. Sum frequency generation of amplified 1309 nm and 1064 nm optical pulses produced 587 nm pulses with 1 ns duration and 2 nJ pulse energy at a repetition rate of 5 MHz. The presented optical pulse source can also produce bursts of picosecond optical pulses inside nanosecond pulse envelopes. These optical pulses are applicable to stimulated emission depletion microscopy for super-resolution imaging of biomedical specimens with green- or yellow- fluorescent proteins labels.