Characterization and Analysis of Relative Intensity Noise in Broadband Optical Sources for Optical Coherence Tomography

Author

Shin, Sunghwan ; Sharma, Utkarsh ; Tu, Haohua ; Jung, Woonggyu ; Boppart, Stephen A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

Volume

22

Issue

14

fYear

2010

fDate

7/15/2010 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1057

Lastpage

1059

Abstract

Relative intensity noise (RIN) is one of the most significant factors limiting the sensitivity of an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. The existing and prevalent theory being used for estimating RIN for various light sources in OCT is questionable, and cannot be applied uniformly for different types of sources. The origin of noise in various sources differs significantly, owing to the different physical nature of photon generation. In this study, we characterize and compare RIN of several OCT light sources including superluminescent diodes (SLDs), an erbium-doped fiber amplifier, multiplexed SLDs, and a continuous-wave laser. We also report a method for reduction of RIN by amplifying the SLD light output by using a gain-saturated semiconductor optical amplifier.

Keywords

erbium; light sources; optical fibre amplifiers; optical tomography; superluminescent diodes; JkJk:Er; OCT light sources; SLD light output; broadband optical sources; continuous-wave laser; erbium-doped fiber amplifier; gain-saturated semiconductor optical amplifier; multiplexed SLDs; noise origin; optical coherence tomography; photon generation; relative intensity noise; superluminescent diodes; Optical coherence tomography (OCT); optical noise; semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2010.2050058

Filename

5466150