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Multimode random fiber laser for speckle free
imaging
Rui Ma, Yun Jiang Rao, Fellow, IEEE, Wei Li Zhang, Senior Member, IEEE and Bo Hu
Abstract—Light sources with high radiance are increasingly
required for full-field real time imaging. Conventional lasing
sources are poorly suited for such imaging due to their high
spatial or temporal coherence which generates speckle that
deteriorates image quality. Here, a random fiber laser with multi
transverse modes is used as illumination light source to effectively
reduce speckle in imaging. Low spatial coherence and low
temporal coherence of the random fiber laser give birth to
significant reduction in speckle. Under the power-limited
condition, the multimode random fiber laser is verified to have
comparable or even better imaging quality compared to
multimode amplified spontaneous emission source. Furthermore,
its potential to generate ultrahigh power of up to hundreds of
Watts with extremely high spectral density would make a
breakthrough in development of new generation of high power
low-coherence light sources for many speckle free imaging
applications where conventional light sources are not usable. As
the multimode random fiber laser can naturally inherit all the
advantages of single-mode random fiber lasers, including flexible
wavelength, robust structure and high power, this work may
provide a platform to develop powerful low-coherence light
sources to meet wide range requirements of full-field real time
speckle free imaging.
Index Terms—Optical fiber lasers; Fiber optics imaging;
Speckle free imaging
I. INTRODUCTION
L ighting technologies in modern imaging have been
intensively studied, such as thermal sources, light-emitting
diodes (LEDs), amplified spontaneous emission sources
(ASEs), laser diodes (LDs), supercontinuum sources and
traditional laser sources. An ideal light source should possess
both high radiance for high quality real time imaging and low
coherence for preventing interference induced speckle [1].
However, most conventional light sources are poorly suitable
for full-field real time imaging since low output power, such as
thermal sources and LEDs, and high coherence, such as LDs
and traditional lasers. Rare-earth ion doped active medium, e. g.
Ytterbium or Erbium fibers, based ASEs can have relatively
high output power and low coherence, but their spectral density
Manuscript received *****, 2018. This work is supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61575040, 61635005 and
61811530062, the state 111 Project under Grant of B14039.
R. Ma, Y. J. Rao, W. L. Zhang and B. Hu are with Fiber Optics Research
Centre, Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing & Communications
(Education Ministry of China), University of Electronic Science & Technology
of China, Chengdu 611731, China (e-mail: marui_uestc@hotmail.com;
yjrao@uestc.edu.cn; wl_zhang@uestc.edu.cn; hubouestc@126.com),
Corresponding author: Y. J. Rao and W. L. Zhang.
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1
is relatively low and their emitting wavelengths are greatly
limited by the energy level of rare-earth ions. Among them,
laser sources can take advantage due to their high brightness,
but suffer from the high coherence problem which would cause
serious speckle. Therefore, lasing sources that own high
spectral density, high output power and low coherence are
highly demanded for achieving high quality full-field real time
imaging.
Random laser (RL), which is based on stimulated lasing
emission from multiple scattering feedbacks within disordered
medium [2-7], has been demonstrated to be well suited for
full-field speckle free imaging in recent years [6]. Benefitting
from the random scattering feedback during lasing process, the
RL is provided with low spatial coherence while still keeps
high spectral density, which makes the RL an ideal lasing
source [8]. Apart from the RL generated in dye solution
interspersed with nanoparticles [6, 9-10], semiconductor-based
chaotic microcavity lasers [11] and Anderson localized random
Raman lasing [12, 13] are also proved to have the capability of
speckle free imaging due to their low spatial coherence.
However, light from these sources has low radiance and poor
directionality that limit their illumination ability greatly.
Another technical route is to use fiber-optic ASEs with
extra-large mode area, which keeps the emission in one
direction [14].
Random fiber laser (RFL), which is a special quasi
one-dimensional RL in optical fiber, has also experienced
extensive investigations [15-20]. Generally speaking, two types
of RFL with solid core fibers have been reported to date: active
fiber inscribed with random distributed fiber Bragg gratings
(FBGs) [21, 22] and common solid core fibers with nonlinear
gain and Rayleigh scattering [15]. The former type RFL with
lower lasing threshold and shorter fiber length, provides a
prospective way for dynamic regulation of laser outputs
[23-25], and is demonstrated with low speckle contrast that is
ideal for speckle free illumination recently [26]. While the
latter type RFL is preferable for high power/efficiency lasing
due to the following features [27-31]. The flexible lasing
wavelength due to stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) process,
simpler and robust structure with all-fiber, high radiance with
potential to generate high power of up to hundreds of Watts
could be of great advantages for full-field real time imaging,
especially in applications of larger-area or high-speed imaging.
In this paper, the RFL with multi transverse modes is
proposed and demonstrated as the illumination light source for
speckle free imaging, for the first time, to the best of our
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knowledge. Both cases of single mode and multimode outputs
of the RFL, along with conventional light sources such as
Erbium-doped fiber based ASE and 1550 nm narrow linewidth
laser (NLL), are all considered for comparison. The
experimental results show that the multimode RFL light source
possesses low coherence and comparable or even better
imaging quality comparing with the multimode ASE. As the
multimode RFL based light source naturally inherits all the
advantages of the single mode RFL, such as high output power,
flexible lasing wavelength, robust structure, this work would
pave a way to realize high power low-coherence light sources
for full-field real time speckle free imaging.
II. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Experimental Setup
Fig.1 Schematic of experimental setup. WDM, wavelength division multiplexer.
SMF, single mode fiber. ISO, insulator. VOA, variable optical attenuator. MMF,
multimode fiber. GG, ground glass. USAF, US Air Force resolution chart. Obj,
microscope objective. L1~L4, lens.
The experimental setup consists of two major parts, as is
shown in Fig. 1. One is the random fiber laser generation part,
where a conventional half-opened structure composed of a fiber
ring reflector and 25 km single mode fiber (SMF) is applied. A
Raman pump laser with wavelength of 1455 nm is injected into
the SMF through a 1455/1550 nm wavelength division
multiplexer (WDM1). WDM2 is used to split out the
unabsorbed 1455 nm pump light, making sure that only 1550
nm random lasing light can pass through for imaging. An
insulator (ISO) is connected to the 1550 port of the WDM2 to
eliminate reflections and ensure that the feedback is due only to
the randomly distributed scattering. In this way, random lasing
is firstly obtained in the SMF with stimulated Raman scattering
and random Rayleigh scattering providing the gain and
feedbacks respectively. A variable optical attenuator (VOA) is
used to adjust the output power of the generated 1550 nm light.
It is worth to mention that a spool of step-index multimode
fiber (core diameter is 105 μm and numerical aperture NA is
0.24, NewPion Photonics) with length of 50 m is connected
with the SMF to reduce the spatial coherence of random lasing
[32, 33]. In this way, both the single transverse mode and multi
transverse modes outputs will be investigated for comparison.
The other major part is the imaging system, where two cases
are considered. For case I, the single transverse mode (at the
end of the SMF) and multi transverse modes (at the end of the
MMF) outputs collimated by lens 1 (focal length of 6.2 mm) are
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used to illuminate a ground glass (GG). An infrared camera
(Xenics, Bobcat-640-GigE) is located behind the GG to
measure the speckle patterns [14]. For case II, a conventional
Kohler illumination system is employed with lens 1 and lens 2
(focal length of 25 mm). A US Air Force (USAF) resolution
chart is illuminated via transmission to characterize the
imaging quality. A microscope objective (Obj, ×10 objective
lens with a numerical aperture of 0.25), lens 3 (focal length of
120 mm) and lens 4 (focal length of 60 mm) are used to
magnify the high-order group patterns of the USAF chart. To
compare the imaging quality, an ASE light source based on
Erbium doped fiber and a 1550 nm NLL light source are also
tested for the two cases.
B. Experimental Results
First of all, the characters of the three light sources, e.g. RFL,
ASE and NLL, are investigated [34]. Fig. 2 (a) gives the optical
spectra of these three light sources, which are measured by an
optical spectrum analyzer (OSA, Ando, spectral resolution of
0.01 nm). The 3 dB bandwidth of the RFL is ~1 nm, which is
obtained under pump power of 1.1 W. The relatively broad
bandwidth is typical for the RFL due to broadband reflections
(e.g. optical fiber ring reflector and distributed Rayleigh
scattering). The ASE source has a much broader 3 dB
bandwidth of ~7 nm, while the bandwidth of the NLL is less
than 0.01 nm. Therefore, the temporal coherence of the RFL is
much lower than the NLL, since coherent length is inversely
proportional to spectral bandwidth ( c =  2  , where c
is coherent length,  and  are wavelength and spectral
bandwidth). Hence，the temporal coherence of random fiber
lasing could be further reduced by using specialty optical fibers
[35].
Fig.2 (a) Optical spectra of RFL, ASE and NLL. (b-g) Mode field profiles of the
outputs from the RFL (b, c), ASE (d, e) and NLL (f, g), respectively. The left
column is single mode (SM) regime while the right column is multimode (MM)
regime.
Mode field profiles of the single mode and multimode
outputs from the RFL, ASE and NLL are shown in Figs. 2 (b-g),
respectively. For the single mode outputs, all the three light
sources keep Gaussian profile with single transverse mode, as
shown in Figs. 2 (b, d, f), while in the multimode outputs higher
order transverse modes are excited as shown in Figs. 2 (c, e, g).
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It is well known that a typical step-index multimode fiber can
support N = ( 4aNA /  ) modes, where a is core radius, NA is
2
numerical aperture and  is light wavelength [33]. For the
1550 nm light considered here, the number of the supported
modes is estimated to be 1057. Excitation of high-order
transverse modes would lead to the reduction in speckle
contrast ( C = 1 m , where m is the number of modes) and
spatial coherence [1]. Besides, the accumulated modal
dispersion of the 50 m MMF is good enough for both the ASE
and RFL to have a relatively uniform output profile, while for
the NLL, modal interference induced strong speckle patterns
still occur as shown in Fig. 2 (g). Through modal analysis of the
MMF, the difference of the effective modal refractive index for
adjacent transverse mode is ~0.0001 for the applied MMF.
Thus, the optical path difference for the adjacent transverse
mode propagating through the 50 m long MMF is ~5 mm,
which is larger than the coherent length of the proposed RFL
(~2.4 mm). Notable decoherence of transverse modes of the
proposed RFL can be realized through light passing through the
50 m MMF. Therefore, broadband light source with low
temporal coherence (e.g. ASE and RFL) can achieve low
spatial coherence with MMF.
Fig.3 Speckle formed after passing through a ground glass diffuser. (a, c, e)
correspond to the single mode outputs of the RFL, ASE and NLL respectively,
while (b, d, f) correspond to their multimode outputs.
The measured speckle patterns of the single mode (Figs. 3 (a,
c, e)) and multimode (Figs. 3 (b, d, f)) outputs through a GG
diffuser are shown in Fig. 3. It is worth to note that the sampling
time of all the images is set to be 500 us. Speckle is clearly
visible when the illumination source is single mode, while for
the multimode RFL and ASE illuminations, speckle formation
is well prevented, seeing Fig. 3(b) and 3(d). The speckle
patterns for the multimode NLL source is slightly suppressed
but still visible and clear, as shown in Fig. 3 (f). Quantitative
comparison of the speckle contrast C =  I
is the standard deviation of the intensity and
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average intensity) for the three light sources for both single
mode and multimode cases is shown in Fig. 4 (a). The values of
C in single mode regime are calculated to be 0.69, 0.55 and 0.75
for the RFL, ASE and NLL respectively. Obviously, broader
spectrum with lower temporal coherence leads to lower speckle
contrast. However, this is still not sufficient for speckle free
imaging, since the human perception of speckle is found to be
below ~0.04 [36]. Thus, the MMF is needed to further reduce
the spatial coherence and speckle. The speckle contrasts in the
multimode regime are 0.049, 0.039 and 0.31 for the RFL, ASE
and NLL respectively. Although the bandwidth of the RFL is
~7 times narrower than that of the ASE, it can still realize
speckle contrast near the threshold of human perception. The
value of the speckle contrast is determined by the number of
excited transvers modes and the decoherence process among
different modes. Since the length of the MMF is long enough
for mode decoherence, further reducing of the speckle contrast
can be realized by increasing the excited mode number, in ways
such as offset splice of the SMF and MMF, imposing force to
bend the MMF.
Fig.4 (a) Speckle contrast of the RFL, ASE, NLL with single mode and
multimode outputs. (b, c) The 2D Fourier transform of the speckle images for
the RFL and NLL with multimode outputs.
To give a vivid comparison of the speckle information for the
multimode RFL and NLL illuminations, spatial frequency
distribution of the speckle patterns is considered through
two-dimensional discrete Fourier transform. Figs. 4 (b, c) are
the Fourier images corresponding to speckle patterns of the
multimode RFL and NLL, respectively. Intensity value of the
Fourier image mostly concentrates among lower frequency
components in the former case, while the magnitude of higher
frequency is relatively uniform in the latter case. This verifies
that speckle patterns in Fig. 3 (f) are much denser and stronger
than that in Fig. 3 (b).
The ability of using the multimode RFL to prevent speckle
formation is characterized through the case II imaging system
shown in Fig. 1. The same GG used to measure speckle contrast
is inserted between lens 2 and the USAF chart. In this way, the
single mode and multimode outputs are firstly transmitted and
diffused via the GG to image the USAF. All the single mode
outputs along with the multimode NLL illumination lead to
visible speckle patterns within the bars of the USAF chart, as
I (where I shown in Fig. 5. Such random intensity modulation deteriorates
I is the the imaging quality. For the multimode RFL and ASE
illuminations with low spatial coherence, all the bars and
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numbers of the USAF chart are clearly visible with uniform
illumination, as shown in Fig. 5 (b) and 5 (d). To give a
quantitative evaluation of the imaging quality, contrast-to-noise
ratio (CNR) is used here [6]. The CNR is defined as:
( ) (( )
I f − Ib f + b ) / 2
where I f and I b are the average intensities in the feature
of interest (e.g. the transmission bar in the USAF chart) and the
surrounding background (e.g. the dark area in the USAF chart),
and  is the standard deviation of the intensity. The CNR
variation versus spatial frequency for different light sources is
shown in Fig. 6, which verifies the multimode RFL and ASE
illumination regimes have a much better imaging quality
comparing to other light sources. More importantly, the RFL is
the result of stimulated lasing process and possesses much
higher spectral density than the ASE, which means the RFL is
much preferable as a laser light source for high power speckle
free imaging.
Fig.5 Images of USAF resolution chart illuminated by the RFL (a, b), ASE (c,
d), NLL (e, f) through a ground glass diffuser. (a, c, e) Images of the single
mode outputs. (b, d, f) Images of the multimode outputs.
Fig. 6 CNR versus spatial frequency for different light sources.
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For an imaging system, the wavelength of the illumination
source mainly lies in the visible light region. However, photons
of visible light have strong scattering in biological samples,
leading to interference that deteriorates imaging quality. Hence,
(1) longer wavelengths can enhance the depth of penetration in
biological samples, thanks for the lower scattering at longer
wavelengths. To demonstrate the bio-imaging capability of the
1550 nm multimode RFL, a cuvette filled with 2 mm thickness
milk, as shown in Fig. 8 (d), is applied to simulate
bio-scattering. The cuvette is located before and after the
USAF chart, so that both scattered light sources and images
through bio-scattering are obtained. Fig. 7 gives the images of
the USAF chart illuminated by the multimode RFL (Figs. 7 (a,
b)) and NLL (Figs. 7 (c, d)), while the left column (Figs. 7 (a, c))
and right column (Figs. 7 (b, d)) correspond to the milk cuvette
placed before and after USAF chart, respectively. It is obvious
that for 2 mm thickness of liquid milk the visible light cannot
propagate through it, while the near infrared light can transport
through it without significant deterioration. The multimode
RFL illumination shows no speckle patterns induced image
corruption no matter the liquid milk is placed before or after the
USAF chart. However, for the multimode NLL light, clear
speckle patterns and redistribution of the intensity occur for
both illumination cases.
Fig. 7 Images of a USAF resolution chart illuminated by the multimode
RFL (a, b) and NLL (c, d). A cuvette filled with liquid milk with thickness of
2 mm is placed before (a, c) and after (b, d) the USAF chart. (e) CNR
variation versus spatial frequency for the multimode RFL and NLL with
milk providing scattering, where the solid circle and diamond represent the
multimode RFL and NLL, respectively.
The CNR of both cases are also given in Fig. 7 (e). It can be
seen that for the milk cuvette placed before USAF chart, the
CNRs of the multimode RFL and NLL illumination regimes
coincide with the results of the GG diffused illumination shown
in Fig. 6. However, for the milk cuvette placed after USAF
chart, although the CNR of the multimode RFL illumination is
still much better than that of the multimode NLL, its value also
reduces comparing with the milk cuvette placed before USAF
chart. This is because photons scattered when propagating
through the milk cuvette are remapped to regions that otherwise
would be dark, regions that correspond to opaque portions of
the USAF chart, so that the background signal is increased. It is
obvious that the near infrared RFL would be the ideal light
source for biological imaging with deeper penetration, taking
advantage of its low scattering character.
To compare the imaging quality of the light sources with
high spectral density (e. g. RFL) and spontaneous emission (e. g.
ASE), the power outputs of the RFL and ASE at the SMF end
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are attenuated to the same values (-9.77 dBm) through the VOA
and then injected into the 50 m MMF. The same milk cuvette is
placed after the USAF chart to provide bio-scattering. At this
illumination power, the image of the USAF chart can barely
pass through the milk and be captured by the camera, when
illuminated by the multimode ASE light source. As shown in
Fig. 8 (a), the pattern of the chart is not clear. However, when
the multimode RFL is used, the image quality is obviously
better with brighter pattern comparing to the background area,
as is shown in Fig. 8 (b). Therefore, the high spectral density
character of the RFL is a significant advantage for
power-limited imaging through medium with high degree of
scattering. The CNR values of the spatial frequency 16
lines/mm for the multimode ASE and RFL in Fig. 8 (a) are 1.39
and 2.63, respectively. Therefore, the imaging quality of the
multimode RFL is almost two times better than that of the
multimode ASE. The multimode RFL with both high spectral
density and low coherence is ideal for imaging in highly
scattering medium.
Fig. 8 (c) and (d) show the photographs of the USAF
resolution chart, and the milk cuvette that is placed before the
USAF chart. It is obviously that visible light cannot resolve the
pattern of the USAF chart at all.
Fig. 8 Images of a USAF resolution chart illuminated by the multimode
ASE (a) and RFL (b) under the same power. The cuvette filled with liquid
milk with thickness of 2 mm is placed after the USAF chart. Images of the
USAF chart without (c) and with (d) the milk filled cuvette. The chart
pattern in (a) corresponds to the red area in (c).
III. DISCUSSION
The multimode RFL has been demonstrated with comparable
or even better imaging capability with the multimode ASE due
to its much higher spectral density. The fiber based multimode
RFL light source has much better directional emission which
makes it possess much higher illumination efficiency than
those nanoparticles based RL light sources. Besides, benefiting
from the random lasing formation mechanism based on both the
random distributed Rayleigh scattering and Raman
amplification, RFL could be easily realized at individual
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wavelength ignoring the limitation of reflectors in conventional
cavity-based lasers. This would make the RFL as a flexible
light source for lasing generation with specific wavelength that
is suitable for specified imaging applications. For instance, the
near infrared RFL proposed in this work would realize deeper
penetration in biological imaging and is free of visible light
noise background. Combining with its high spectral density, the
RFL can be used as an effective illumination light source in
medium with high degree of scattering. So, the supercontinuum
emission seeded by the RFL [35] could be capable for use in
optical coherence tomography (OCT). Additionally, very high
output power of up to hundreds of Watts would be achievable
with very high spectral density [30-31], which would be crucial
for high speed real time imaging [37].
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the multimode RFL has been successfully
demonstrated as an effective light source for speckle free
imaging, by combining multimode fiber induced low spatial
coherence with the intrinsic low temporal coherence of the RFL.
The experimental results indicate that the proposed multimode
RFL has comparable or even better imaging capability than
conventional broadband light source such as ASE, since it has
much higher spectral density generated from stimulated lasing
process. The wavelength and output power of the proposed
RFL light source can be flexible for specific imaging
applications, thanks for both the mechanisms of random
Rayleigh scattering and Raman gain in optical fiber for
generation of powerful random lasing. Therefore, this work
provides a platform to develop powerful low-coherence lasing
light sources to meet wide range requirements of speckle free
imaging.
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Rui Ma, is now working toward the Ph.D. degree for optical engineering at the
Key Lab of Optical Fiber Sensing & Communications (Education Ministry of
China), University of Electronic Science & Technology of China, Chengdu,
China. He received the B.S. degree from University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China in 2014. His research interests include novel lasers and
fiber sensors.
Yun Jiang Rao, received the Ph.D. degree in optoelectronic engineering from
Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, in 1990. He joined the Electric and
Electronic Engineering Department at Strathclyde University, U.K. as a
Postdoctoral Research Fellow during 1991–1992 and Applied Optics Group
of the Physics Department at Kent University, U.K. as a Research Fellow and
then a Senior Research Fellow during 1992–1999. From 1999 to 2004, he was
a Chang-Jiang Chair Professor in Chongqing University. From 2004, he held
the Chang-Jiang Chair Professor in University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China. He is currently the Director of the Key Lab of Optical
Fiber Sensing and Communications (Ministry of Education), University of
Electronic Science and Technology of China. Prof. Rao is a Fellow of IEEE,
OSA and SPIE. His research interests include fiber-optic sensors and lasers.
Wei Li Zhang, (M’13 – SM’13) received B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in
communication engineering from Southwest Jiaotong University, China, in
2003 and 2008, respectively. From 09/2008 to 10/2010, he was working as a
research fellow in School of EEE, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore. He began to work in University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China as an associated professor since November 2010, and as a
professor since 2016. His interests include semiconductor microcavity laser,
optical fiber lasers, and surface-plasmon physics. He has authored/coauthored
over 100 papers published in refereed professional journals and national and
international conferences and he filled 5 patents. His doctoral dissertation was
awarded the nomination award of "National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of
China". He got the “2007’s Jeme Tien Yow Special Prize of Science and
Technology”. He owned the “2013 New-professional Academic Award” of
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Dr. Zhang is the
editorial board committee of Optical and Quantum Electronics and Journal of
Nanoelectronics and Ophotonics.
Bo Hu, is now working toward the Master’s degree for optical engineering at
the Key Lab of Optical Fiber Sensing & Communications (Education Ministry
of China), University of Electronic Science & Technology of China. He
received the B.S. degree from Changchun University of Science and
Technology in 2016. His current interests include random fiber laser and fiber
sensing.