English

The Stanford University team has manufactured the first practical chip grade titanium sapphire laser

106
2024-07-01 14:11:26
See translation

According to a report in Nature on June 26th, a team from Stanford University in the United States has developed a titanium sapphire laser on a chip. Whether in terms of scale efficiency or cost, this achievement is a huge progress.

 


Image source: Nature website
Titanium sapphire lasers are indispensable in many fields such as cutting-edge quantum optics, spectroscopy, and neuroscience, but they have not been widely applied in the real world. Because this type of laser is usually large in size and expensive, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit, and requiring other high-power equipment (priced at approximately $30000 per unit) to maintain operation.

To solve this problem, researchers first laid a large layer of titanium sapphire on the silica platform; Grind, etch, and polish the titanium sapphire into an extremely thin layer, only a few hundred nanometers thick; Then, design a vortex composed of tiny ridges on the thin layer. These ridges are like fiber optic cables, guiding light to circulate continuously and gradually increasing in intensity. This mode is called a waveguide. Compared with other titanium sapphire lasers, this prototype has reduced its size by 4 orders of magnitude (equivalent to one thousandth of the original) and reduced its cost by 3 orders of magnitude (equivalent to one thousandth of the original).

The remaining part is a microscale heater that can heat the light passing through the waveguide, allowing researchers to change the wavelength of the emitted light and adjust the wavelength range to between 700-1000 nanometers, from red light to infrared light.

In quantum physics, this new laser can significantly reduce the scale of state-of-the-art quantum computers; In the field of neuroscience, it can be applied in optogenetics, allowing scientists to control neurons by guiding light inside the brain through relatively large optical fibers; In ophthalmology, it may be combined with chirped pulse amplification technology in laser surgery to achieve new applications, or provide cheaper and more compact optical coherence tomography technology to evaluate retinal health.

Currently, constantly updated technology allows many laboratories to have ultra small lasers on a single chip, rather than a large and expensive laser. Small size lasers actually help improve efficiency - mathematically speaking, intensity is equal to power divided by area. Therefore, maintaining the same power as large lasers but reducing their concentrated area will result in a significant increase in intensity. More importantly, these compact and powerful lasers can quickly leave the laboratory and serve many different important applications.

Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Related Recommendations
  • Precision laser manufacturer Preco appoints Jacob Brunsberg as CEO

    Recently, Preco, a leading enterprise in precision laser material processing and laser equipment manufacturing solutions, officially announced a major personnel appointment: Jacob Brunsberg, an outstanding senior manufacturing and technology management expert, has been appointed as its CEO. Mr. Brunsberg is a renowned senior manager in the field of advanced manufacturing and technology, with man...

    2024-09-23
    See translation
  • New laser technology can achieve more efficient facial recognition

    Recently, the latest research report from FLEET, an interdisciplinary research team in Australia, revealed a significant leap in laser technology, achieving unprecedented levels of spectral purity.Spectral purity, which refers to the degree of matching of a single light frequency (or color) generated by a laser, is an important indicator for measuring laser performance. By using a scanning Fabry P...

    2024-06-24
    See translation
  • Optical Capture of Optical Nanoparticles: Fundamentals and Applications

    A new article published in Optoelectronic Science reviews the basic principles and applications of optical capture of optical nanoparticles. Optical nanoparticles are one of the key elements in photonics. They can not only perform optical imaging on various systems, but also serve as highly sensitive remote sensors.Recently, the success of optical tweezers in separating and manipulating individual...

    2023-11-25
    See translation
  • The globalization of three-color laser technology will be further accelerated

    Recently, the IFA2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin, Germany opened, Hisense exhibited "three-color laser projection family bucket" attracted the attention of media and tourists from all over the world.Since Hisense's young fashion brand Vidda launched a series of three-color laser projection, its accumulation based on three-color laser technology is competing globally and has become a...

    2023-09-04
    See translation
  • The research team of Xi 'an Jiaotong University and Northwestern Polytechnical University proposed a new technology of laser cutting water to provide a new idea for the application of "water"

    Water is a natural resource that human beings depend on for survival and is used in many fields. In recent years, the patterning and flow control of trace water have attracted wide attention in materials science, chemistry, biomedicine and other fields."Draw the knife to cut off the water more flow"? No, it's "Laser cut water pattern"! On September 1, the reporter learned that Xi 'an Jiaotong Univ...

    2023-09-05
    See translation