  We demonstrate a VECSEL (vertical external cavity surface emitting laser)
based degenerate source with an adjustable degree of spatial coherence that is
electrically pumped, mechanically compact and supports continuous-wave
emission. The laser operation can be switched between a large number of
mutually incoherent spatial modes and few-mode operation at little power loss.
This technology allows multimodality imaging, where low spatial coherence
illumination is used for traditional high-speed video-microscopy and high
spatial coherence illumination is used to extract dynamic information of flow
processes. The initial demonstration is performed on imaging embryo heart
function in Xenopus, which is an important animal model for human heart
disease.
