TUNABLE SPECTROSCOPIC SOURCE WITH POWER STABILITY AND METHOD OF OPERATION

摘要

A laser system (100) for a spectroscopic catheter system (50) utilizes an overmoded cavity (L) in order to reduce mode hoping induced power fluctuations during wavelength scanning. In the preferred embodiment, a semiconductor gain medium (116) is used to reduce cost. A fiber pigtail (114) is used to define the laser cavity, which has a tight cavity mode spacing (332) of less than 15 Gigahertz. A diffraction grating (140) is used as the tuning element. A cylindrical lens (142) is used to reduce alignment tolerances and thereby increase manufacturability.