Bellouard and his groups service? Utilize a business femtosecond laser to make a femtosecond laser out of glass, no larger than the size of a charge card, and with less positioning hassles. The outcomes are released in the journal Optica.
How to make a femtosecond laser out of glass
To make a femtosecond laser utilizing a glass substrate, the scientists start with a sheet of glass. “We want to make stable lasers, so we utilize glass since it has a lower thermal growth than traditional substrates, it is a stable material and transparent for the laser light we use,” Bellouard describes.
Using an industrial femtosecond laser, the scientists etch out special grooves in the glass that enable for the accurate positioning of the necessary components of their laser. Even at micron-level accuracy fabrication, the grooves and the parts are not sufficiently exact by themselves to reach laser-quality alignment. To put it simply, the mirrors are not yet completely aligned, so at this stage, their glass device is not yet practical as a laser.
Producing a GigaFemto laser using etching. Credit: Jamani Caillet/ EPFL
The scientists also know from previous research study that they can make glass expand or shrink in your area. Why not use this technique to adjust the positioning of the mirrors?
The initial etching is therefore designed so that one mirror beings in a groove with micromechanical flexures crafted to locally stir the mirror when exposed to femtosecond laser light. In this way, the business femtosecond laser is utilized a second time, this time to line up the mirrors, and ultimately produce a steady, small femtosecond laser.
” This technique to completely align free-space optical components thanks to laser-matter interaction can be broadened to a broad variety of optical circuits, with extreme alignment resolutions, down to sub-nanometers,” says Bellouard.
Applications and beyond
Continuous research programs at the Galatea Lab will check out using this technology in the context of quantum optical system assembly, pressing the limitation of currently achievable miniaturization and positioning precision.
The alignment procedure is still monitored by a human operator, and with practice can take a couple of hours to achieve. Regardless of its little size, the laser is capable of reaching roughly a kiloWatt of peak power and of producing pulses of less than 200 femtoseconds, barely sufficient time for light to travel throughout a human hair.
This unique femtosecond laser innovation is to be spun off by Cassio-P, a business to be headed by Antoine Delgoffe at Galatea Lab, who signed up with the job at a decisive stage with the mission of completing the proof-of-concept into a future business device.
” A femtosecond laser duplicating itself, are we maybe reaching the point of self-cloning made devices?” concludes Bellouard.
Recommendation: “All-glass mini GHz repetition rate femtosecond laser cavity” by Antoine Delgoffe, Clemens Hönninger, Sargis Hakobyan, Yves Bellouard and Saood Nazir, 19 October 2023, Optica.DOI: doi:10.1364/ OPTICA.496503.
The research was moneyed by the European Research Council under an ERC PoC grant, job GigamFemto, focusing on the demonstration of a gigahertzfemtosecond laser on a single glass chip. The spin-off activities have actually been supported through the Bridge Proof-of-Concept and EPFLs Ignition programs.
Researchers have created a compact femtosecond laser from glass, transforming the alignment procedure and appealing developments in quantum optics and technology miniaturization. These lasers discharge very short and constant bursts of light and have applications in numerous fields such as laser eye surgical treatment, non-linear microscopy, spectroscopy, and sustainable information storage. Normally, industrial femtosecond lasers are constructed by installing optical components on a substrate, like optical breadboards, demanding careful alignment.
Use a business femtosecond laser to make a femtosecond laser out of glass, no larger than the size of a credit card, and with less positioning hassles. Using a commercial femtosecond laser, the researchers engrave out unique grooves in the glass that permit for the precise positioning of the vital elements of their laser.
Researchers have actually developed a compact femtosecond laser from glass, reinventing the alignment procedure and appealing developments in quantum optics and innovation miniaturization. This innovative method, funded by the European Research Council, is poised for commercialization. Credit: Jamani Caillet/ EPFL
Is it possible to create a femtosecond laser completely from glass? Thats the bunny hole that Yves Bellouard, head of EPFLs Galatea Laboratory, decreased after years of spending hours– and hours– lining up femtosecond lasers for laboratory experiments.
The Galatea laboratory stands at the intersection of mechanics, optics, and materials science, with femtosecond lasers being a crucial element of Bellouards work. These lasers discharge exceptionally short and consistent bursts of light and have applications in different fields such as laser eye surgical treatment, non-linear microscopy, spectroscopy, and sustainable information storage. Typically, industrial femtosecond lasers are built by mounting optical parts on a substrate, like optical breadboards, requiring meticulous alignment.
” We use femtosecond lasers for our research study on the non-linear homes of products and how materials can be modified in their volume,” describes Bellouard. “Going through the workout of agonizing complex optical positionings makes you dream of easier and more reliable ways to align intricate optics.”