Multi-GHz 'Smart' Burst-mode ultrafast-laser processing of microfluidic structures, biological/medical materials and difficult industrial materials

物理学，工程学和医学生物物理学的四名教师，以及他们的学生和博士后，两家加拿大公司和一家欧洲合作者，要求资助推进新一代用于制造和高附加值材料处理的强超短脉冲光纤激光器，围绕两个新的范例构建：（1）根据申请书，使用“可编程硅”代替定制设计的分立电子器件来整形、控制和稳定非常快（2GHz）的激光脉冲序列;以及（2）在2GHz以上的超高重复率下的“突发模式”激光加工。超快脉冲激光器作为一类，现在众所周知能够以非常低的附带影响进行显著的切割。最近，以非常快速的连续（1-100 MHz）提供这种脉冲的突发模式激光器已被证明是一种新的传输模式--一种对有意的热积累、材料升华、等离子体介导的烧蚀和材料改性进行非常精确的控制的模式。在过去的一年里，人们发现，>2 GHz甚至比100 MHz更好。我们的系统将提供高峰功率，而不需要几千瓦的平均功率，“可编程硅”将使它成为一个自我监测、自我调节的激光器，将其最后的输出脉冲与模板模式进行比较，然后在大约30 ns的真实的时间内校正操作。我们将绕过精确预测~20，000倍放大器的非线性增益动态的需要。为此，该系统更加稳定和精确，并为不同的交付模式提供了巨大而灵活的选择范围：从超温和的升华加工到直接写入内部波导结构的非常具体的热量控制，从切割玻璃到将其焊接在一起，然后改变为写入内部诊断光波导-所有这些都没有任何重新加工。基础研究是该项目的一部分，旨在建立最佳模式或“脉冲计划”，以满足加工玻璃、晶体、多晶陶瓷、生物医学植入材料、金属等的不同需求。

Four faculty members in Physics, Engineering and Medical Biophysics, together with their students and postdocs, two Canadian companies and a European collaborator, request funding to advance a new generation of intense ultrashort-pulse fibre-laser for manufacturing and high value-added materials treatment, built around two new paradigms: (1) the use of "programmable silicon" instead of custom-designed discrete electronics for shaping, control and stabilization of very fast (2 GHz) laser pulsetrains, according to the application; and (2) 'burst-mode' laser processing at ultra-high repetition rates, above 2 GHz.Ultrafast-pulse lasers, as a class, are now well-known to make remarkable cuts with very low collateral impact. More recently, burst-mode lasers, delivering such pulses in very rapid succession (1-100 MHz) have been shown as a new mode of delivery -- one which gives very precise control of intentional heat accumulation, material sublimation, plasma-mediated ablation, and material modification. In the last year has come the discovery that >2 GHz is even better still than 100 MHz.Our system will deliver trains of high peak power without requiring multi-kilowatt average power, and "programmable silicon" will make it a self-monitoring, self-regulating laser which compares its last output pulse to a template pattern, then corrects operations in ~30ns real time. We'll bypass the need to precisely predict the nonlinear gain dynamics of the ~20,000x amplifier. For this, this system is far more stable and precise, and offers a huge and flexible range of options for different modes of delivery: from ultra-gentle sublimation machining to very specific control of heat for direct-writing internal waveguide structures, from dicing glass in pieces to welding it together, and then changing to writing internal diagnostic optical waveguides -- all without any retooling. Foundational research is one part of the project, to establish optimal patterns, or 'pulse plans', for different needs of processing glasses, crystals, polycrystalline ceramics, biomedical implant materials, metals and others.