Deep UV high-value manufacturing laser instruments

在这个仪器开发项目中，我们将设计，建造和测试两个激光系统，产生足够能量的紫外光脉冲，用于标记，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发方式。所提出的系统的主要优点是，它们将是高效的，并为发射的光提供独特的特性，这在世界上任何其他激光系统中都找不到。第一个是光的颜色或波长，它将比几乎所有其他固态激光系统都短;其次，对于其中一个仪器，每个脉冲中的能量及其到达频率将与较小的工业标准受激准分子气体激光器相当，其用于电子制造工业中的许多过程，但是依赖于有毒和腐蚀性气体以及非常高的电压放电，第二台仪器的每脉冲能量比第一台仪器少一千倍，但每秒提供的脉冲数量却比第一台仪器多一千倍，这使得它非常适用于速度和精度都很重要的快速精密微处理。为了能够制造这些新型激光系统，我们将利用一项旧技术，该技术已重新成为一种潜在的平台架构，即低温冷却。应用于具有高平均功率的高能激光系统的低温冷却已经被接受为通向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 -在STFC卢瑟福阿普尔顿实验室（RAL）http://www.stfc.ac.uk，HiLASE -http://www.hilase.cz），这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的独特特性成为可能。在项目结束时，我们将制定一条明确的知识转移路线，以实现这些激光器的制造，并开始与英国激光微加工工业合作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.