Deep UV high-value manufacturing laser instruments

在这个仪器开发项目中，我们将设计、构建和测试两个激光系统，产生具有足够能量的紫外线脉冲，以标记、切割或钻孔各种有色金属工程材料，无论是精确地去除少量还是伴随目标材料爆炸的批量方式。所提出的系统的主要优点是，它们将是高效的，并提供独特的性质，为发射的光，不能在世界上任何其他激光系统中找到。首先是光的颜色或波长，它将比几乎所有其他固态激光系统短；接下来，对于其中一种仪器，每个脉冲的能量和它们到达的频率将与较小的工业标准准分子气体激光器相当，准分子气体激光器用于电子制造业的许多过程，但依赖于有毒和腐蚀性气体和非常高的电压放电来产生紫外线；虽然第二个仪器每脉冲的能量比第一个少一千倍，但它每秒提供的脉冲数量相同，这对于快速精确的微处理非常有用，在这些微处理中，速度和准确性是非常重要的。为了能够制造这些新型激光系统，我们将利用一种古老的技术，低温冷却，这种技术已经重新成为一种潜在的平台架构。低温冷却应用于具有高平均功率的高能激光系统已被接受为激光驱动聚变反应堆和极端峰值功率激光设施的可靠途径（NIF - https://lasers.llnl.gov/， DiPOLE - at STFC卢瑟福阿普尔顿实验室（RAL） http://www.stfc.ac.uk, HiLASE - http://www.hilase.cz），清楚地证明了该方法的潜在效率。采用这种方法，我们将开发一种平台技术，支持上述两种系统，并使我们提出的制造激光仪器具有独特的特性。在项目结束时，我们将开发出一条清晰的路线来转移知识，使这些激光器能够制造，并开始与英国激光微加工工业伙伴合作测试其材料加工性能。

In this instrument development project we will be designing, constructing and testing two laser systems producing UV light pulses with sufficient energy to mark, cut or drill various non-ferrous engineering materials, be it removing small amounts precisely or in a wholesale manner that accompanies an explosion of the target material. The key advantages of the proposed systems are that they will be efficient and offer unique properties for the emitted light that cannot be found in any other laser system in the world. The first is the colour, or wavelength, of the light that will be shorter than almost all other solid-state laser systems; next and for just one of the instruments, the energy in each pulse and their frequency of arrival will be comparable to the smaller industrial-standard excimer gas lasers, which are used for many processes in the electronics manufacturing industry but rely on toxic and corrosive gases and very high voltage discharges to generate the UV light; while the second instrument will have one thousand times less energy per pulse than the first, it will deliver the same number more pulses per second, making it very useful for rapid precision micro-processing, where speed and accuracy are a premium. For us to be able to make these novel laser systems we will exploit an old technology that has re-emerged as a potential platform architecture, cryogenic cooling. Cryogenic cooling applied to high energy laser systems with high average powers has become accepted as the credible route toward laser driven fusion reactors and extreme-peak-power laser facilities (NIF - https://lasers.llnl.gov/, DiPOLE - at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) http://www.stfc.ac.uk, HiLASE - http://www.hilase.cz), clearly evidence of the potential efficiency of the approach. Employing this method we will develop a platform technology that underpins both of the systems detailed above and will enable the unique characteristics of our proposed manufacturing laser instruments. At the end of the project we will have developed a clear route for transferring the knowledge to enable the manufacturing of these lasers and begun testing their performance for materials processing in collaboration with UK laser micro-processing industrial partners.