Advanced techniques for efficient frequency conversion of laser radiation

激光材料加工广泛应用于半导体、便携式电子和医疗器械行业，这些行业拥有快速增长的数十亿美元市场。高精度激光加工通常需要紫外或可见光波长范围内的脉冲（皮秒，10^-12 s）辐射。今天，这种辐射是通过使用具有中等效率的非线性晶体对红外激光辐射进行频率转换而产生的。该战略项目赠款的目标是开发一种新的革命性变频技术，以克服这一挑战，并将转换效率提高到90%以上。该方法将基于非线性晶体中的自共振效应的基本性质，这是最近观察到的申请人之一。这项技术将使目前的激光系统效率提高数倍。此外，该技术非常强大，可以使用传统的非线性晶体来实现，从而为许多工业激光材料加工应用铺平了道路。该项目的成果将重新定义激光频率转换的最新技术，创造一个新的范例，并使加拿大处于国际领先地位。所提出的方法的好处，沿着简单的设计和实施，吸引了真正的兴趣和强大的支持，从两个领先的加拿大公司，制造工业激光系统：帕萨特有限公司和阿托达因。两家公司都将积极参与这一项目，并有能力将开发的技术商业化，这将产生数百万美元的收入。最后，该项目所产生的新知识以及与该工作不同阶段相关的高素质人员（两名博士生、四名硕士生、六名暑期本科生和两名博士后研究员）的培训肯定会有助于提高加拿大的全球竞争力，特别是在便携式电子产品、半导体和医疗设备等具有战略重要性的高技术制造部门。

Laser material processing is widely used in semiconductor, portable electronics and medical device industries that have rapidly growing multi-billion dollar markets. High-precision laser processing typically requires pulsed (picosecond, 10^-12 s) radiation in the ultraviolet or visible wavelength ranges. Today such radiation is produced by frequency conversion of infrared laser radiation using nonlinear crystals with moderate efficiency. The goal of this Strategic project grant is to develop a new revolutionary frequency conversion technology that will overcome this challenge and increase conversion efficiency to >90%. The approach will be based on the fundamental properties of the autoresonance effect in nonlinear crystals which was recently observed by one of the applicants. This technology will make current laser systems several times more efficient. In addition, this technique is very robust and can be implemented using conventional nonlinear crystals in turn paving the way to many industrial laser material processing applications. The results of this project will redefine state-of-the-art in laser frequency conversion, creating a new paradigm and placing Canada in a position of international leadership. The benefits of the proposed approach, along with the simplicity of the design and its implementation, attracted genuine interest and strong support from two leading Canadian companies that manufacture industrial laser systems: Passat Ltd. and Attodyne. Both companies will be actively involved in this project and are well positioned to commercialize the developed technology, which can generate multi-million revenues. Finally, the new knowledge generated from this project and the training of highly qualified personnel (two PhD students, four MSc students, six undergraduate summer students, and two postdoctoral fellows) associated with the different stages of this work will certainly contribute to enhance Canada's global competitiveness, especially in such strategically important high-technology manufacturing sectors as portable electronics, semiconductor and medical devices.