Abstract

In this paper, we present, to the best of our knowledge, the first high-power polarization-maintaining supercontinuum source which covers the wavelength range from 460 to above 2000 nm enabling high power tunable sources for biophotonics applications. For many of these applications the continuum source is combined with an optical tunable filter such as an Acousto Optical Tunable Filter (AOTF) [1] or grating based device [2] in order to obtain distinct laser lines for excitation of the fluorochromes. Most filter devices are polarization sensitive, but until now the output of all high power supercontinuum sources have been depolarized, resulting in 50% power loss when light is transmitted through these filters.

© 2007 IEEE