Raman pumped Fourier Domain Mode Locked (FDML) laser: Analysis of operation and application for optical coherence tomography (OCT)

limitations of the sweep repetition rate of rapidly wavelength swept laser sources. Such sources can be applied for optical coherence tomography (OCT) using frequency domain detection. This technique is called swept source OCT (ss-OCT) or optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI). FDML lasers usually consist of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as laser gain medium, an output coupler, a periodically driven optical band-pass filter (FFP-TF) and an optical delay line, so that their total length is typically several kilometres.