Low-cost, High-performance Lasers: Novel Applications of Disk Laser Approaches

低成本、高性能激光器：盘式激光器方法的新颖应用

基本信息

批准号：
EP/E036724/1
负责人：
Alan Kemp
金额：
$ 49.31万
依托单位：
University of Strathclyde
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2007
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2007 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FE036724%2F1
关键词：
Low cost performance Lasers Novel

项目摘要

The cutting edge laser systems that have been developed in laboratories around the world in recent years do not want for performance. For example, lasers based on crystals of sapphire doped with titanium now routinely produce pulses of a few millionths of a billionth of a second: the shortest of man-made events. For that tiny fraction of a second, the power of the laser light is the equivalent the output of a power-station. These and other extreme specifications of today's high performance laser make them potentially revolutionary tools. Indeed, across science and engineering that revolution has started, allowing the very small, the very fast and the very complex to be studied in detail. The potential, however, is greater still. Today's high performance laser is not yet the penknife in the scientist's pocket; unwieldy and expensive, the titan is chained to the laser lab. The laser engineering challenge is to harness this performance and power in a practical package, such that the laser can go to the user rather than the user having to come to the laser. This will trigger a second - and arguably bigger - applications revolution. We believe that the use of a disk of laser material, rather than the conventional rod, can make a large contribution to civilising high-performance lasers. There are essentially two reasons for this. First, a number of important - but detrimental - properties of laser materials scale with length; these problems can be minimised by using thin disks. Second, finesse lasers, such as those based on titanium sapphire, are typically pumped by other lasers; these pump lasers can cost tens of thousands of pounds due to the performance levels required. The use of disks reduces the quality of the pump beam that is needed; thus, we believe lower cost devices such a laser diodes and even LEDs can be used with laser systems that have traditionally required high cost pump lasers.Serendipitously, the development of blue laser diodes for next generation DVD and high power light emitting diodes (LEDs) for solid-state lighting has led to a considerable improvement in performance of these light sources. As these devices are aimed at mass markets, the unit costs will be small, making them ideal low-cost pump sources. Even with these improvements, such light sources lack the power and the beam quality to pump conventional finesse lasers. However, disk geometries remove these hurdles enabling, we believe, the first demonstration of diode-laser pumping of Ti:sapphire and a new generation of LED pumped lasers. These are potentially disruptive technologies. Lower-cost, more compact Ti:sapphire lasers will take the benefits of this thoroughbred laser system directly to the application and low-cost LED pumped lasers will enable applications - like high-risk undersea or toxic substance sensing - that required finesse lasers but where loss or damage is inevitable.

近年来世界各地实验室开发的尖端激光系统并不追求性能。例如，基于掺钛蓝宝石晶体的激光器现在通常会产生百万分之一秒或十亿分之一秒的脉冲：这是最短的人造事件。在这一瞬间，激光的功率相当于发电站的输出。当今高性能激光器的这些和其他极端规格使其成为潜在的革命性工具。事实上，整个科学和工程领域的革命已经开始，允许对非常小、非常快和非常复杂的事物进行详细研究。然而，潜力更大。今天的高性能激光器还不是科学家口袋里的小刀。这个泰坦笨重且昂贵，被拴在激光实验室里。激光工程的挑战是在实用的封装中利用这种性能和功率，以便激光可以到达用户身边，而不是用户必须来到激光面前。这将引发第二次——而且可以说是更大的——应用程序革命。我们相信，使用激光材料盘而不是传统的棒，可以为高性能激光器的文明做出巨大贡献。这主要有两个原因。首先，激光材料的许多重要但有害的特性与长度成正比；使用精简磁盘可以最大限度地减少这些问题。其次，精细激光器，例如基于钛蓝宝石的激光器，通常由其他激光器泵浦；由于所需的性能水平，这些泵浦激光器的成本可能高达数万英镑。圆盘的使用降低了所需泵浦光束的质量；因此，我们相信激光二极管甚至 LED 等成本较低的设备可以与传统上需要高成本泵浦激光器的激光系统一起使用。偶然地，用于下一代 DVD 和高功率发光二极管 (LED) 的蓝色激光二极管的开发固态照明的发展使得这些光源的性能有了相当大的提高。由于这些设备面向大众市场，单位成本很小，使其成为理想的低成本泵源。即使有了这些改进，此类光源仍缺乏泵送传统精细激光器的功率和光束质量。然而，我们相信，圆盘的几何形状消除了这些障碍，从而首次展示了钛蓝宝石的二极管激光泵浦和新一代 LED 泵浦激光器。这些都是潜在的颠覆性技术。成本更低、更紧凑的钛宝石激光器将把这种纯种激光系统的优势直接应用到应用中，而低成本 LED 泵浦激光器将使需要精细激光器但又需要精密激光器的应用（如高风险海底或有毒物质传感）成为可能。损失或损坏是不可避免的。