Scientists shrink powerful laser onto a chip after 20 years
6 reported
Researchers at EPFL have developed a chip-scale ultrafast laser that performs on par with traditional tabletop femtosecond lasers, according to a study published in Nature. The device delivers pulse energies of 1.05 nanojoules and pulse durations as short as 147 femtoseconds from a photonic chip. The team adopted a laser architecture known as the Mamyshev oscillator, a design that had received relatively little attention in integrated photonics. The laser cavity measures 42 centimeters in length but can be folded onto a chip roughly the area of a match head. Because photonic chips can be manufactured at wafer scale, more than 1,000 laser cavities could potentially be produced simultaneously. The researchers believe the technology could lead to portable devices for detecting environmental pollutants, identifying hidden defects in materials, and performing medical diagnostics.
What’s reported
Researchers led by Professor Tobias J. Kippenberg at EPFL reported the first integrated ultrafast laser matching the performance of traditional tabletop femtosecond lasers.
The laser delivers pulse energies of 1.05 nanojoules and pulse durations as short as 147 femtoseconds.
The design uses a Mamyshev oscillator, placing a nonlinear waveguide between two optical filters.
The laser cavity is 42 centimeters long but fits on a chip roughly the size of a match head.
More than 1,000 laser cavities could potentially be produced simultaneously using wafer-scale manufacturing.
The work involved researchers from EPFL Institute of Electrical and Microengineering and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).
Key figures
Professor Tobias J. Kippenberg, researcher at EPFL
Zheru Qiu, co-leading author of the paper
Sources: ScienceDaily
