Cryogenically-cooled solid-state lasers

该项目的目的是开发一种新型的激光平台，工作在亚1微米波长，具有高能量存储能力，使Q开关能够产生能量脉冲，并将其频率转换到蓝绿光谱区域，然后进入深紫外光。人们正在寻找高平均功率和峰值功率的光源，用于精密材料加工应用，其中较短的波长将提高处理效率和速度。一种固态激光器架构，有可能在设计脉冲持续时间和能量时利用多功能性，将提供与行业标准准分子气体激光器竞争的机会，其优势是不像后者那样依赖有害气体和高压放电来产生紫外光。此外，在几个10‘S千赫的重复频率下工作，将使这些激光器能够被用于极其快速和精确的微处理应用，非常适合于电子或汽车零部件制造。为了实现目标特性，我们将采用积极的冷却增益介质到低温。这种功率和能量缩放技术已被证明是非常成功的，目前正在著名的激光实验室(麻省理工学院林肯实验室-https://www.ll.mit.edu/index.html))中使用，以展示数百瓦的平均功率激光，此外还有国家设施，如卢瑟福·阿普尔顿实验室，用于下一代极端功率激光系统。在项目结束时，我们将确定这些新型激光平台开发的关键设计方面，使这些设备能够在工业水平上制造。

The aim of this project is to develop a novel laser platform operating at a sub-1-micron wavelength, with high energy storage capacity that enables Q-switching to create energic pulses to be frequency converted into the blue-green spectral region and then subsequently into the deep UV. High average-, and peak-power, sources are being sought out for precision materials processing applications, where a shorter wavelength will improve processing efficiency and speed. A solid-state laser architecture, with the possibility of exploiting versatility in designing the pulse duration and energy, will offer the chance to compete with industry-standard excimer gas lasers, with the advantage of not relying on harmful gases and high-voltage discharges to generate UV light, like the latter do. Furthermore, operation in a several 10's kHz repetition rates will allow these lasers to be exploited for extremely fast and precise micro-processing applications, ideal for applications in electronics or automotive-parts manufacturing.In order to achieve the targeted features, we will employ the aggressive cooling of the gain media to cryogenic temperatures. This power-and-energy-scaling technique has proved to be very successful and is currently employed in eminent laser laboratories (MIT Lincoln Laboratory - https://www.ll.mit.edu/index.html) to demonstrate multi-hundreds-of-watts average power lasers, in addition to national facilities such as Rutherford Appleton Laboratory for the next generation extreme power laser systems.At the end of the project we will have identified key design aspects for the development of these novel laser platforms that will allow the manufacturing of these devices at industrial level.