Acquisition of a Supercontinuum Laser Source

A supercontinuum laser source with broad tunability is required for time-resolved spectroscopy experiments to be performed using a homemade spectrometer. The supercontinuum source requires a high enough power to achieve adequate signal to noise ratios and a high repetition rate to be able to obtain measurements over a wide range of time delays in a reasonable amount of time.

For time-resolved spectrometer setup, we desire the ability to probe a wide range of wavelengths to observe changes in absorbance spectrum of substances of interest during experiments.  A supercontinuum source will provide a white laser while a tunable filter can be used to select a wavelength to probe the sample.  At a minimum, we hope to achieve 1 mW/nm power over a majority of the visible range, as well as probe wavelengths as low as 400 nm.

To make the most of the homemade spectrometer developed, we require the ability to probe a wide range of wavelengths.  To do this, we require a beam of good quality and reasonable diameter (M2 = ~1.1 and 1-3 mm respectively) with a power that allows us to obtain a reasonable signal-to-noise ratio.  An average power above 1 mW/nm would be sufficient for this purpose.  Such a beam is provided by the Leukos Rock 400 4 supercontinuum source and Bebop tunable filter.