Fully automated all-fiber widely-tunable optical-parametric-oscillator laser system

Summary form only given. Among other modern imaging techniques, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) requires an extremely quiet, widely wavelength tunable laser [1], which, up to now, is unheard of in fiber laser systems. Here we present a compact all-fiber laser system, which features an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) in an endlessly single-mode photonic-crystal fiber [2]. We employ pulses from an all-fiber frequency and repetition rate tunable laser, which after amplification and subsequent conversion in the linear OPO cavity arrangement are converted to wavelength ranges of 764-960 nm and 1164-1552 nm at a repetition rate of 9.5 MHz. Thus, all biochemically relevant Raman shifts from 922 to 3322 cm -1 may be addressed in combination with an additional output, which is tunable from 1024 to 1052 nm. This ultra-low-noise output emits synchronized pulses with twice the repetition rate to enable SRS imaging.