US Patent 11567006 Optical sources for fluorescent lifetime analysis

Compact optical sources and methods for producing short and ultrashort optical pulses are described. A semiconductor laser or LED may be driven with a bipolar waveform to generate optical pulses with FWHM durations as short as approximately 85 ps having suppressed tail emission. The pulsed optical sources may be used for fluorescent lifetime analysis of biological samples and time-of-flight imaging, among other applications.