Creating new laser systems for use in spectroscopy applications is a challenging and costly endeavor. In order to give even small and medium-sized enterprises access to such innovative technology, the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) co-launched the QuantumCascade project to develop a modular laser system for a range of multispectral analytics.This week the IZM reported on the project, which ran from 2022-2025. IZM ...

A project at Macquarie University has demonstrated a way to narrow the linewidth of a laser beam by a factor of over ten thousand.Published in APL Photonics, the technique offers a promising route toward ultra-narrow linewidth lasers for potential use in a wide range of pump-pulse systems.Laser linewidth measures how precisely a beam of light maintains its frequency and color purity, and narrow-linewidth lasers are increasingly valuable in applic...

High-tech and industrial laser company Trumpf has reported rather negative preliminary trading figures for the fiscal year (FY) 2024-2025, with CEO Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller stating that “the lowest point has been reached.”The Ditzingen, Germany-based company stated that it had ended the latest fiscal year “as expected – with a decline in sales and order intake.” According to preliminary calculations, in the fiscal year 2024/25 (ending June 30...

xLight, a US startup aiming to commercialize particle accelerator driven free electron lasers (FELs) for use in semiconductor production, says it has raised $40 million in a series B round of venture funding.The Palo Alto, California, firm said that the support would enable it to develop a prototype next-generation light source capable of emitting at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths that are currently used to produce the most advanced semico...

On July 7, the European Space Agency (ESA), established Europe’s first deep-space optical communication link with NASA’s Psyche mission using a high-power fiber laser system supplied by NKT Photonics, a subsidiary of Hamamatsu.NKT’s announcement stated, “This achievement, conducted with NASA/JPL’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) demonstrator, marks a significant leap forward in high-data-rate communication across vast interplanetary dist...

STMicroelectronics (ST), a developer of semiconductor technologies and Metalenz, which creates metasurface optics, have announced a new license agreement.The companies intend to broaden ST’s capability to use Metalenz IP to produce advanced metasurface optics based on ST’s manufacturing platform combining 300mm semiconductor and optics production, test and qualification. (Any) fiancial details of the arrangement were not disclosed.300mm metasurf...

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) have invented a new type of tunable semiconductor laser that shows smooth, reliable, wide-range wavelength tuning in a simple, chip-sized design.Tunable lasers are integral to many technologies, from high-speed telecommunications to medical diagnostics to safety inspections of gas pipelines. Yet laser technolo...

A project at Trinity College Dublin is now hosting Ireland's first BioBrillouin microscope instrument, applying Brillouin spectroscopy to life sciences and medicine.This should in particular enhance the College's research into cellular and tissue mechanics for the study of inflammation, cancer, and developmental biology.Brillouin microscopy offers a route to optical investigation of a biological sample's mechanical and viscoelastic properties, vi...

At last month’s LASER World of Photonics exhibition in Munich, Germany, industrial solutions and laser giant Trumpf presented a new materials processing laser system solution specified to improve welding processes.The system combines several sensors that monitor all process steps during laser welding. An integrated AI quality control system checks the weld seams, for example, and OCT (optical coherence tomography) monitors the welding depth of th...

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) have announced that they have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding. This builds on their existing decade of strategic collaboration to advance high-power laser technology.“We are looking forward to expanding our existing collaborations with ELI on areas such as ultrabright high-repetition-rate sources for...

Physicists at the University of Oxford have unveiled a “pioneering” method for capturing the full structure of ultra-intense laser pulses in a single measurement. The breakthrough, a collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, could revolutionize the ability to control light-matter interactions, say the team.The Oxford announcement states: “This would have transformative applications ...