The development and application of biomedical imaging technologies such as multiphoton confocal microscopy and optical coherence tomography are critically dependent on the availability of ultrashort pulse laser light sources. The lack of compact and low cost ultrashort pulse light sources is a critical factor which limits wider spread research and clinical applications of many of these imaging technologies. The objective will be to develop a third generation ultrashort pulse laser technology which achieves shorter pulse durations, broader bandwidths and broader tunability, as well as being one order of magnitude lower in cost than current technology. The design principles that are developed will be applicable to a wide range of different solid state laser materials. This proposed project is a continuation of an ongoing collaboration between Profs. Fujimoto and Kaertner at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Franz Kaertner is currently at the University of Karlsruhe, but will be joining the faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Summer of 2001.
