SUPercontinuum broadband light sources covering UV to IR applications

The laser offers coherent radiation, which is millions of times brighter than sunlight and can be focused to a tiny spot. It has an immense range of applications spanning basic science over industrial applications to everyday consumer products. A standing challenge has been to use nonlinear processes to convert laser light to new wavelengths as lasers only operate efficiently at distinct wavelengths. Supercontinuum (SC) generation offers an elegant solution to this, as it massively broadens the laser spectrum. In its simplest case a powerful narrowband laser is sent into a short piece of fibre to generate a rainbow of colours at the output, pertaining the brightness and spatial coherence of the laser. This allows access to both new wavelengths and new applications exploiting coherent broadband laser radiation that not available with conventional laser technology. The scientific challenge addressed in the project SUPUVIR is to overcome current shortcomings of SC sources in terms of wavelength coverage, noise, power density and robustness to offer a truly unique and disruptive technology for societal challenges, such as pollution and food quality monitoring, bio-imaging, and detection and monitoring of key diseases, such as cancer and glaucoma

The major advances beyond state-of-the-art are:
1. The development of a deep understanding of low-noise coherent so-called ANDi supercontinuum (SC) generation and how is depends on pump laser noise and the birefringence of the optical fibre. Thishas enabled SUPUVIR researchers to develop these low-noise ANDi SC sources and demonstrate unrivalled performance in optical coherence tomography imaging and scanning near-field optical microscopy in terms of sensitivity and penetration depth. This will allow faster and more accurate diagnosis of important diseases, such as skin cancer and glaucoma.
2. The development of a deep understanding of SC cascading, which is a very complicated process in which a broadband SC is used to pump another optical fibre to generate an SC extending to even longer wavelengths. This knowledge has profound importance for the development of the future long-wavelength mid-infrared SC sources extending past 10 microns to cover the so-called molecular fingerprint region. Such sources are of key importance for pollution and food quality monitoring, as well as for performing ultra-fast optical biopsies of cancer tissue.
3. Through the scientific advanced industrial partner NKT Photonics is developing a new low noise SC laser product series with more than an order of magnitude lower noise than current state-of-of-the-art. Likewise industrial partner Leukos is developing an ultra-broadband mid-infrared SC laser product series that for the first time extends to wavelengths longer than 10 microns.
4. A fully automated multimodal fluorescence microscopy platform has been developed incorporating an SC laser, which is capable of intensity, lifetime, and spectral imaging at unprecedented speeds (orders of magnitude faster than conventional approaches) without sacrificing accuracy or. The system fills a major gap in biomedical diagnostics and provides new opportunities for drug research in cells or organism models. The novel platform has already enabled SUPUVIR researchers to make significant contributions in the fields of neuroscience, stem cells, gene delivery, and material science.
5. A near-infrared SC laser with extremely high pulse energy has been developed and used as the light source in a new optical-resolution photoacoustic microscope (OR-PAM). The new system has allowed the researchers to demonstrate real-time in vivo hyper-spectral PAM of lipids and endogenous agents inside live tadpoles. The results have underlined the suitability of high-pulse energy SC lasers in endoscopic multi-spectral OR-PAM systems for the detection of atherosclerosis, a key disease in an increasingly obese society.
6. Industrial partner VALMET has been able to develop a short-range SC laser based LIDAR system for remote profiling of the temperature and gas composition inside thermal devices, such as industrial furnaces and boilers. This represents the first non-contact system to be able to provide a profile (not just an average) of the temperature and gas composition.

The major advances beyond state-of-the-art are:
1. The development of a deep understanding of low-noise coherent so-called ANDi supercontinuum (SC) generation and how is depends on pump laser noise and the birefringence of the optical fibre. Thishas enabled SUPUVIR researchers to develop these low-noise ANDi SC sources and demonstrate unrivalled performance in optical coherence tomography imaging and scanning near-field optical microscopy in terms of sensitivity and penetration depth. This will allow faster and more accurate diagnosis of important diseases, such as skin cancer and glaucoma.
2. The development of a deep understanding of SC cascading, which is a very complicated process in which a broadband SC is used to pump another optical fibre to generate an SC extending to even longer wavelengths. This knowledge has profound importance for the development of the future long-wavelength mid-infrared SC sources extending past 10 microns to cover the so-called molecular fingerprint region. Such sources are of key importance for pollution and food quality monitoring, as well as for performing ultra-fast optical biopsies of cancer tissue.
3. Through the scientific advanced industrial partner NKT Photonics is developing a new low noise SC laser product series with more than an order of magnitude lower noise than current state-of-of-the-art. Likewise industrial partner Leukos is developing an ultra-broadband mid-infrared SC laser product series that for the first time extends to wavelengths longer than 10 microns.
4. A fully automated multimodal fluorescence microscopy platform has been developed incorporating an SC laser, which is capable of intensity, lifetime, and spectral imaging at unprecedented speeds (orders of magnitude faster than conventional approaches) without sacrificing accuracy or. The system fills a major gap in biomedical diagnostics and provides new opportunities for drug research in cells or organism models. The novel platform has already enabled SUPUVIR researchers to make significant contributions in the fields of neuroscience, stem cells, gene delivery, and material science.
5. A near-infrared SC laser with extremely high pulse energy has been developed and used as the light source in a new optical-resolution photoacoustic microscope (OR-PAM). The new system has allowed the researchers to demonstrate real-time in vivo hyper-spectral PAM of lipids and endogenous agents inside live tadpoles. The results have underlined the suitability of high-pulse energy SC lasers in endoscopic multi-spectral OR-PAM systems for the detection of atherosclerosis, a key disease in an increasingly obese society.
6. Industrial partner VALMET has been able to develop a short-range SC laser based LIDAR system for remote profiling of the temperature and gas composition inside thermal devices, such as industrial furnaces and boilers. This represents the first non-contact system to be able to provide a profile (not just an average) of the temperature and gas composition

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SUPUVIR (SUPercontinuum broadband light sources covering UV to IR applications)

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