Laser sustained plasma and endoscopy light source

An illumination source, comprising:

• an ingress laser source comprising a first laser driver unit (102) configured to emit a plasma sustaining beam;
• an ingress collimator configured to receive the plasma sustaining beam and produce a collimated ingress beam;
• an ingress focusing optic configured to receive the collimated ingress beam and produce a focused sustaining beam;
• a sealed lamp chamber containing an ionizable media that, once ignited, forms a high intensity light emitting plasma comprising a waist size smaller than 150 microns, the sealed lamp chamber further comprising:
• an ingress window configured to receive the focused sustaining beam;
• and
• an egress window configured to emit a high intensity light produced by the high intensity light emitting plasma;
• an ignition source configured to ignite the ionizable media;
• and
• an exit fiber configured to receive and convey the high intensity light,
• wherein the high intensity light comprises white light with a black body spectrum and the exit fiber has a diameter in the range of 200-500 micrometers, and the first laser driver unit further comprises a 150 W laser diode stack coupled through beam correction optics into a 200 micrometer laser fiber in a numerical aperture (NA) range of 0.15-0.3.