Superposition of two independent FDML lasers

Fourier domain mode locking (FDML) is a laser operating regime, which was developed in 2005 [1]. The output of this laser is a train of optical wavelength sweeps, equivalent to extremely chirped pulses with an optical bandwidth of up to 25 THz and frequency tuning rates of >10 19 Hz/s. This laser type was developed for optical coherence tomography [2] , but found recently more and more applications like LiDAR [3] , Raman microscopy [4] or two-photon microscopy [5]. The laser's coherence properties are relevant for a better understanding of the FDML laser itself and its applications. Because of the wide sweep range and high tuning rate, the laser linewidth cannot be measured with an RF spectrometer. Superposition with a narrowband continuous wave laser only yields phase information for small fractions of the sweep [6]. However, beat signal measurements between two independent FDML lasers with equal sweep range and direction can give information about the complete sweep.