What is an Ultrafast Laser?

Ultrafast lasers (UFL) emit ultrashort pulses with durations of femtoseconds (10^-15 s) to picoseconds (10^-12 s). They are also known as ultrashort pulse (USP) lasers or femtolasers.

A femtosecond (10^-15 seconds) is one quadrillionth, or one millionth of one billionth of a second.  A femtosecond compares to a second, as a second compares to 30 million years.

Figure 1. Light is so fast that it can circle 

the earth 7 times in only one second.

Figure 2. In 100 femtoseconds light only

crosses a hair width

UFL’s have a wide range of industrial applications including:

-          material processing

-          micromachining

-          microfluidics fabrication

-          solar thin films

-          biosensors fabrication

-          waveguide writing

-          medical treatments

-          laser microscopy

-          tomography

We can compare the position of the femtosecond laser just a few years ago with how “conventional wisdom” perceived the Internet back in the early 1990s: “hardly anybody anticipated that so many people the world over would depend on the web for shopping and entertainment, communications and work.”

But an Internet-style turnaround is happening to the ultrafast laser. The past 20 years of femtosecond R&D is now finding applications in “cold” ablation- notably the drilling and cutting of high precision holes (such as in the production of medical stents) free from thermal damage.  The ultra-fast lasers essentially vaporize matter without generating heat- creating new ways to machine materials. They are particularly good at machining very small, very precise patterns in tough materials.


For more information go to  www.appliedenergetics.com