We are pleased to announce a new addition to our laboratory instrumentation – the SuperK Fianium FIR-25, a pulsed supercontinuum laser source. Unlike conventional lasers that operate at a fixed wavelength, a supercontinuum laser emits an exceptionally broad and continuous spectrum of coherent light, spanning from the visible to the infrared region. This “white laser” combines the brightness and spatial coherence of a laser with the spectral versatility of a broadband lamp.
The exceptionally broad “white light” produced by a supercontinuum laser arises from a combination of nonlinear optical effects inside a special optical fiber. When very short and intense laser pulses enter the fiber, their strong electric field slightly changes the refractive index of the material — an effect known as the optical Kerr effect. This change modifies the phase of the light across the pulse and effectively generates new frequency components, extending the spectrum beyond the original laser wavelength.
In our laboratory, the SuperK Fianium FIR-25 will serve as a versatile light source for several ongoing research directions. Its first integration will be with our fluorescence microscopy setup for single-molecule imaging and spectroscopy, enabling efficient excitation of diverse organic emitters across the visible and near-infrared range. The tunable and high-quality output will facilitate super-resolution microscopy, spectroscopic characterization of nonclassical emission states from individual molecules and molecular clusters, and room-temperature magnetometry based on organic spintronic systems. Beyond these primary applications, the broadband output of the laser will also support calibration and performance testing of optical components and photonic detectors across a wide spectral range.
