English

Scientists use glass to create femtosecond lasers

1157
2023-09-28 17:12:33
See translation

Image source: Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland

 

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, September 27th (Reporter Zhang Jiaxin) Commercial femtosecond lasers are manufactured by placing optical components and their mounting bases on a substrate, which requires strict alignment of optical components. So, is it possible to manufacture femtosecond lasers entirely from glass? According to the latest issue of Optics magazine, scientists at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland have successfully achieved this, with lasers no larger than credit cards and easier to align.

Researchers stated that due to the lower thermal expansion of glass compared to traditional substrates, it is a stable material. Therefore, they chose glass as the substrate and used commercial femtosecond lasers to etch special grooves on the glass to accurately place the basic components of the laser. Even in precision manufacturing at the micron level, the grooves and components themselves are not precise enough to achieve laser quality alignment. In other words, the reflector is not fully aligned, so at this stage, their glass device cannot be used as a laser.

So, researchers further designed etching to position a mirror in a groove with micro mechanical bending, which can locally twist the mirror when irradiated by femtosecond laser. By aligning the mirror in this way, they ultimately created a stable, small-scale femtosecond laser.

Despite its small size, the peak power of the laser is about 1 kilowatt, and the time to emit pulses is less than 200 femtoseconds, which is so short that light cannot pass through human hair.

This method of permanently aligning free space optical components through laser material interaction can be extended to various optical circuits, with extreme alignment resolutions as low as sub nanometer level.

 

Reprinted from:LDWORLD

Related Recommendations
  • Rachel's latest laser welding and cutting machine processes thicker materials at lightning speed

    Rachel is a pioneer in laser technology solutions and is pleased to announce a significant update to its laser welding and cutting machines. These enhanced features aim to provide customers with faster turnaround time and higher accuracy, reaffirming Rachel Corporation's commitment to providing cutting-edge laser cutting and welding solutions to meet the needs of different industries.Lache Company...

    2024-04-07
    See translation
  • Low noise! Switzerland develops a new type of laser

    According to foreign media reports, scientists from the Physics Research Institute and the Institute of Physics and the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland have made a new progress in the field of excitation science, developing a smaller and quieter laser system than previous products.Small laser system (I...

    2024-07-03
    See translation
  • Launching the world's strongest laser at a cost of 320 million euros

    Beijing, April 1st (Reporter Liu Xia) - The world's most powerful laser has been activated recently. On March 31st, the Physicist Organization Network reported that the system can enable laser pulses to reach a peak of 10 terawatts (1 terawatt=100 terawatts=1015 watts) within 1 femtosecond (1000 trillions of a second), which is expected to promote revolutionary progress in multiple fi...

    2024-04-03
    See translation
  • Visual platforms bring new perspectives to optical research

    The advanced testing platform of Liquid Instruments is now available for Apple Vision Pro, providing optical researchers with the first interactive 3D testing system. By integrating the Moku system with camera based visual devices, the efficiency of the laboratory has been significantly improved.The Moku platform utilizes the processing power of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to provide a ...

    2024-05-23
    See translation
  • Patterned waveguide enhanced signal amplification within perovskite nanosheets

    Researchers at Busan National University, led by Kwangseuk Kyhm, Professor of Ultra Fast Quantum Optoelectronics from the Department of Optics and Mechatronics, are enhancing signal amplification inside cesium bromide lead perovskite nanosheets through patterned waveguides.Perovskite is a highly attractive material in solar cell applications, but its nanostructure is now being explored as a new la...

    2024-01-10
    See translation