Abstract

Lasers with spectral broad emission spectra are possible light sources for white light interferometric measurements like coherence radar or optical thomography because they have short coherence lengths and a high brightness. Decreasing the coherence length leads to an increase of the spatial solution. One opportunity to decrease the coherence length is to broaden the emission spectrum by saturable absorbers. These absorbers should show their spectral absorption maximum in the area of the emission maximum of the laser.

© 2001 EPS