Extended-Cavity Semiconductor Wavelength-Swept Laser for Biomedical Imaging

We demonstrate a compact high-power rapidly swept wavelength tunable laser source based on a semiconductor optical amplifier and an extended-cavity grating filter. The laser produces excellent output characteristics for biomedical imaging, exhibiting >4-mW average output power, <0.06-nm instantaneous linewidth, and >80-dB noise extinction with its center wavelength swept over 100 nm at 1310 nm at variable repetition rates up to 500 Hz.