Wide and fast wavelength-swept fiber lasers based on dispersion tuning for real-time OCT

Abstract

Swept-Source Optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) is a powerful tool for fast medical imaging. For the real-time 3D imaging, the wide tuning range over 100 nm and fast sweep rate over 100 kHz are typically required. We recently proposed a new wavelength-swept laser for SS-OCT. It is based on a principle called dispersion tuning. Since the cavity contains no mechanical components, such as tunable filters, we could achieve the very high sweep rate. In this review paper, we describe the principle of the dispersion-tuned swept lasers in detail and present our recent works on the application to the SS-OCT system.