NKT Photonics laser filtering accessory for optical coherence tomography
Designed for the company's SuperK supercontinuum lasers, the SuperK GAUSS filtering accessory from NKT Photonics (Birkerød, Denmark) provides a Gaussian-like spectrum, making it ideal for optical coherence tomography (OCT). The accessory provides two spectral outputs centered at 800 and 1300 nm, with bandwidths up to 200 nm, through single-mode fiber using the SuperK Fiber Delivery system. Tuning of the center wavelength of each band over 200 nm is also possible.
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PRESS RELEASE
NKT Photonics launches new SuperK GAUSS for OCT and White Light Interferometry applications.
Birkerød, Denmark (February 28th, 2011), NKT Photonics – the supercontinuum fiber laser pioneer and commercial manufacturer of SuperK Lasers – launches the SuperK GAUSS filtering accessory, empowering the SuperK lasers for applications in Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and White Light Interferometry (WLI).
With innovative and robust filtering technology, the SuperK GAUSS harnesses the wide spectral bandwidth of the SuperK EXTREME supercontinuum lasers and provides a Gaussian-like spectrum. For OCT, the SuperK GAUSS provides two high power spectral outputs centered at 800nm and 1300nm, with bandwidths of up to 200nm, through single mode fiber using the SuperK Fiber Delivery system. Similar configurations are also available for WLI applications. The SuperK GAUSS even allows the tuning of the center wavelength of each band over 200nm.
Connecting the GAUSS to the SuperK EXTREME is very simple and shares the same Plug’n’Play platform common to all SuperK accessories.
“The wide spectral bandwidth of the SuperK EXTREME improves the axial resolution in OCT and WLI applications,” said Dr. Husain Imam, Senior Sales Manager, NKT Photonics. “The combination of the SuperK GAUSS filter and the EXTREME supercontinuum laser provides a smooth spectrum, dramatically reducing the number of image artifacts. Now users can obtain images of both increased resolution and detail.” he added.
The advantages of using the SuperK EXTREME and SuperK GAUSS for OCT were presented at Photonics West 2011 by Professor Ruikang Wang and his former group at the Oregon Health and Science University. Results showing resolution down to 2 microns in tissue images were obtained in the paper “Ultra-high-resolution and ultra-high-sensitive optical micro-angiography based on supercontinuum light source”. “The excellent system imaging performance shows a great potential of our system in future biological imaging applications.” stated Professor Wang, now at the Dept of Bioengineering, University of Washington. In addition, Dr. Martin Wurm of the Research for Non-Destructive Testing (RECENDT) in Austria, who uses SuperK lasers for OCT, re-iterates, “SuperK systems outperform sources we traditionally used for our high resolution OCT, making it ideal for commercial applications.”
The SuperK series of industrial supercontinuum lasers and accessories are used in biomedical instrumentation for applications in imaging and analysis. All SuperK lasers are based on a monolithic fiber platform and needs no alignment, no warm up time and have lifetimes exceeding industry standards – none of which is achievable with standard techniques. The SuperK series is based on a telecom-grade monolithic fiber platform and is produced on semi-automated equipment enabling high quality with consistent production and constantly improved life time.
For more details about the SuperK GAUSS and the SuperK portfolio, please visit our website http://www.nktphotonics.com/superk_accessories The figure shows that the SuperK EXTREME achieves better resolution than low cost SLDs and compares excellently with the more expensive Ti-Sapphire laser.
About NKT Photonics
NKT Photonics designs and manufactures commercial and industrial class specialty microstructured fibers and high power fiber amplifiers. The company also designs and manufactures fiber-based industrial systems such as supercontinuum lasers and ultra precise DFB fiber lasers. The mentioned products are produced under the brand names CRYSTAL FIBRE, aeroLASE™, SuperK™ and KOHERAS™. These systems are commercially deployed in material processing, bio-photonics, metrology, optical sensors, coherent communications, test and measurement, high resolution spectroscopy and LIDAR markets. NKT Photonics has its headquarters in Denmark. Sales & services offices are in the USA, Germany and France. NKT Photonics is wholly owned by the Danish industrial conglomerate NKT Holding A/S.
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Posted by Lee Mather
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