Abstract
We present a novel implementation of the lightwave synthesized frequency sweeper (LSFS) based on Ytterbium doped fiber amplifiers. The source can potentially be used for swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT), which has recently been shown to have an improved signal to noise ratio compared to time domain OCT systems, and development of suitable swept wavelength sources is for this reason of utmost importance. Based on Ytterbium doped fiber amplifiers, the source operates in the 1-1.1 μm range, which makes it particular useful for ophthalmic applications of OCT. Previous studies of a LSFS based on Erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), which can be operated with noise figures close to the fundamental quantum limit, showed that the scanning range was limited by the buildup of amplified spontaneous emission noise. In spite of Ytterbium doped amplifiers are fundamentally not able to approach the quantum limit, our fundamental experiments show performance comparable to EDFA based systems. The result of the experiments compare well with predictions given by a numerical concatenated amplifier model, hence validating the model and enabling us to use the model for future system optimization.
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