Advanced techniques for efficient frequency conversion of laser radiation

激光材料加工广泛应用于半导体、便携式电子和医疗设备行业，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线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。这一战略项目拨款的目标是开发一种新的革命性的频率转换技术，该技术将克服这一挑战，并将转换效率提高到&gt；90%。该方法将基于其中一位申请者最近观察到的非线性晶体中自共振效应的基本性质。这项技术将使目前的激光系统效率提高数倍。此外，这种技术非常健壮，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。该项目的结果将重新定义激光频率转换的最先进技术，创造一个新的范例，并使加拿大处于国际领先地位。拟议方法的好处，以及设计和实施的简单性，吸引了两家制造工业激光系统的加拿大领先公司的真正兴趣和大力支持：Passat Ltd.和Attodyne。两家公司都将积极参与这一项目，并处于有利地位，将开发的技术商业化，这将产生数百万美元的收入。最后，该项目产生的新知识以及与这项工作的不同阶段相关的高素质人才(两名博士生、四名硕士学生、六名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、半导体和医疗器械等具有战略重要性的高科技制造行业。

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.