Tunable laser assembly and method of control

A stabilized laser comprising:

• a tunable semiconductor laser emitting tunable laser radiation;
• at least one photodetector;
• at least one reference wavelength filter;
• at least one optical element that generates signal pulses corresponding to nearly equally spaced wavenumbers;
• and
• a closed loop controller;
• wherein timing information from a signal generated by that at least one reference wavelength filter and the at least one an optical element that generates signal pulses corresponding to nearly equally spaced wavenumbers are input to the closed-loop controller and the closed-loop controller stabilizes the absolute wavelength and optical bandwidth of said tunable laser radiation.

A swept source optical coherence tomography system comprising:

• a tunable semiconductor laser emitting tunable laser radiation;
• at least one photodetector;
• at least one reference wavelength filter;
• at least one optical element that generates signal pulses corresponding to nearly equally spaced wavenumbers;
• and
• a closed loop controller;
• wherein timing information from a signal generated by that at least one reference wavelength filter and the at least one an optical element that generates signal pulses corresponding to nearly equally spaced wavenumbers are input to the closed-loop controller and the closed-loop controller stabilizes the absolute wavelength and optical bandwidth of said tunable laser radiation;
• an OCT interferometer;
• and
• an OCT detector;
• wherein at least a portion of the said tunable laser radiation is directed to the OCT interferometer and the output of the OCT interferometer directed to an OCT detector for generating OCT interferograms.