Broadband 1.5 GHz VECSEL-Based Laser System for High Speed Multicontrast Nonlinear Imaging

We demonstrate a 1.5 GHz broadband laser system based on a passively mode-locked Vertical-External-Cavity Surface-Emitting-Laser (VECSEL) for high speed nonlinear imaging. The 300 nm wide supercontinuum generated via photonic crystal fiber (PCF) coupled with pulse shaping by means of multiphoton intrapulse interference phase scan (MIIPS) allows us to procedurally filter out spectral windows of interest for nonlinear imaging applications as well as compress the resulting pulses to their transform-limited duration. The intrinsically high repetition rate our system is operating at matches the typical fluorescence lifetime of many biological samples, making it an ideal source for rapid nonlinear bio-imaging while mitigating the risks of photobleaching and photodamage.