Pulsed Raman fiber laser and multispectral imaging in three dimensions

Raman scattering in single-mode optical fibers is exploited to generate multispectral light from a green nanolaser with high pulse repetition rate. Each pulse triggers a picosecond camera and measures the distance by time-of-flight in each of the 0.5 Mpixels. Three-dimensional images are then constructed with submillimeter accuracy for all visible colors. The generation of a series of Stokes peaks by Raman scattering in a Si fiber is discussed in detail and the laser radar technique is demonstrated. The data recording takes only a few seconds, and the high accuracy 3D color imaging works at ranges up to ∼200 m. Applications for optical tomography in highly scattering media such as water and human tissue are mentioned. © 2006 Optical Society of America.