A Mid-InfraRed FIber Laser (MIRFIL) has been developed that generates super-continuum covering the spectral range from 0.8 to 4.5 microns with a time-averaged power as high as 10.5W. The MIRFIL is an all-fiber integrated laser with no moving parts and no mode-locked lasers that uses commercial off-the-shelf parts and leverages the mature telecom/fiber optics platform. The MIRFIL power can be easily scaled by changing the repetition rate and modifying the erbium-doped fiber amplifier. Some of the applications using the super-continuum laser will be described in defense, homeland security and healthcare. For example, the MIRFIL is being applied to a catheter-based medical diagnostic system to detect vulnerable plaque, which is responsible for most heart attacks resulting from hardening-of-the-arteries or atherosclerosis. More generally, the MIRFIL can be a platform for selective ablation of lipids without damaging normal protein or smooth muscle tissue.

Date Published: 19 February 2009
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 7195, Fiber Lasers VI: Technology, Systems, and Applications, 71950W (19 February 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.807206

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7195:
Fiber Lasers VI: Technology, Systems, and Applications
Denis V. Gapontsev; Dahv A. Kliner; Jay W. Dawson; Kanishka Tankala, Editor(s)