Applications of LASERs

University of
Surrey
School of Physics and
Chemistry
Guildford, Surrey
GU2 7XH, UK

Jeremy Allam
Optoelectronic Devices
and
Materials Research
Group
Tel +44 (0)1483
876799

Applications of lasers
1. General lasers

coherent
monochromatic

2. High power lasers

high CW power
high pulsed powers

Interferometry
Holography

material processing
medical applications
nuclear fusion

3. Ultrafast lasers
short pulses (<5fs)
broadband gain(>300nm)
high peak powers (>TW)

dynamics of physical, chemical, biological processes

spectroscopy, pulse shaping
high energy processes, wavelength conversion

Applications of lasers
1. General lasers

coherent
monochromatic

Interferometry
Holography

Longitudinal Coherence of Laser Light

phase noise or drift
(spontaneous emission,
temperature drift,
microphonics, etc)

leads to

finite spectral
width

phasor at t=0
phasor at t=t1

leads to

finite coherence time coh. (or length lcoh.)

1
coh.
lcoh. c coh.
2 L

coh. (or lcoh.)

Measuring Longitudinal Coherence

use interferometer e.g. Michelson interferometer
M1
M1
L1

BS

M2

for long coherence

lengths, use optical
fibre delay

L1

optical
BS fibre

L2
detector

detector
(path length) = 2L1-2L2 << coherence length lcoh.

output

output

2L1-2L2 ~ lcoh.

M2

Applications of interferometers
Measurement of length:

{see Smith and King ch. 11}

LINEAR TRANSLATION: interferometric translation stage

FLATNESS/UNIFORMITY: e.g. Twyman-Green interferometer
LINEAR VELOCITY OF LIGHT: famous Michelson-Morley experiment
c is independent of motion of reference frame
DETECTING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES: minute movement of end mirrors
ROTATION (e.g. of earth): Sagnac interferometer as an optical gyroscope:
For N loops of area A and rotation rate phase difference is:

8NA
c

Measurement of optical properties:

REFRACTIVE INDEX: Rayleigh refractometer
LIGHT SCATTERING: heterodyne spectrometry
ULTRAFAST DYNAMICS: pump-probe / coherent spectroscopy

Numerous other applications...

Holography

RECORDING

{see Smith and King ch. 19}

READING / RECONSTRUCTING

Photography - record electric field intensity of light scattered by object

illuminating
beam

photograph

object

photographic
plate

2D representation of
image (no depth)
eye

Holography - record electric field intensity and phase

reference beam
beam
expander

illuminating
beam

LASER

BS
Hologram
(photographic
plate)

object

reconstruction
beam
hologram

reconstructed
image
diffracted
reference beam
eye

Applications of lasers

2. High power lasers

high CW power
high pulsed powers

material processing
medical applications
nuclear fusion

Laser fabrication of Be components

http://www-cms.llnl.gov/wfo/laserfab_folder/index.html

a high-speed, low-cost method of cutting beryllium materials

No dust problem (Be dust is poisonous)
autogenous welding is possible
Achieved using a 400-W pulsed Nd-YAG laser and a 1000-W CW CO2 laser
Narrow cut width yields less Be waste for disposal
No machining damage
Laser cutting is easily and precisely controlled by computer

1kW Nd:YAG cutting metal sheet

Laser Tissue Welding

Photograph of the laser delivery handpiece with a
hollow fiber for sensing temperature. The surgeon is
repairing a 1 cm-long arteriotomy.
http://lasers.llnl.gov/mtp/tissue.html
Laser tissue welding uses laser energy to activate photothermal bonds and/or photochemical
bonds. Lasers are used because they provide the ability to accurately control the volume of
tissue that is exposed to the activating energy.

Nuclear Fusion: National Ignition Facility

http://www.llnl.gov/str/Powell.html

Why femtosecond lasers?

(Titanium-sapphire properties)

ultrashort
pulses
(5fs)

timing physical
processes
time-of-flight
resolution

broadband
gain
(700-1000nm)
high
power
(TW)

THz pulse
generation
pulse shaping
coherent control

generate:
UV
X-rays,
relativistic
electrons

parametric
conversion

What is ultrashort?
One
Computer Camera
month Age of
clock cycle
flash
pyramids
10 fs light pulse
1 minute
-14

10

-9

10

-4

Very short pulses!

Milli (m)
Micro ()
Nano (n)
Pico (p)
Femto (f)
Atto (a)

10
10
10
Time (seconds)

10-3
10-6
10-9
10-12
10-15
10-18

11

10

Human existence

Age of universe
16

10

Very high powers!

Kilo (k)
Mega (M)
Giga (G)
Tera (T)
Peta (P)

10+3
10+6
10+9
10+12
10+15

Shortest Pulse Duration (femtoseconds)

Mode-locked Ultrafast Lasers

A 4.5-fs pulse
Active mode locking
1000
Passive mode locking
100

Colliding pulse
mode locking

10

Intra-cavity pulse
compression

Extra-cavity pulse
compression
'65

'70

Ultrafast
Ti:sapphire laser

'75

'80
Year

'85

'90

'95

Current record:
4.0 fsec
Baltuska, et al. 2001

Reports of attosec
pulses, too!

Ultrafast Optics vs. Electronics

Speed (seconds)

10

10

10

Electronics
12

Optics
10

15

1960

1970

1980

1990

Year
No one expects electronics to ever catch up.

2000

ultrafast
opto-electronics
microwave
photonics

electrooptic
sampling

THz
device
physics

NL pulse
propagation

nonlinear
optics

highharmonic
ultrashort (<10fs)
generation
biological /
solid-state
intense (UV, X-ray)
tunable
environfemtosecond (>1TW)
(UV-MIR)
mental
lasers
relativistic
sensing
optical
electron
coherent
spectromotion
scopy
non-stochastic
coherent
breakdown
control controllable
material
ablation
photoprocessing
chemistry
medical
applications
free-space
THz

highenergy
physics

Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy: Why?

Most events that occur in atoms and molecules occur on fs and ps time
scales. The length scales are very small, so very little time is required for
the relevant motion.
Fluorescence occurs on a ns time scale, but competing non-radiative
processes only speed things up because relaxation rates add:
1/ex = 1/fl + 1/nr
Biologically important processes utilize excitation energy for purposes other
than fluorescence and hence must be very fast.
Collisions in room-temperature liquids occur on a few-fs time scale, so
nearly all processes in liquids are ultrafast.
Semiconductor processes of technological interest are necessarily ultrafast
or we wouldnt be interested.

Ultrafast Spectroscopy of Photosynthesis

The initial events in
photosynthesis occur on
a ps time scale.

Arizona State University

The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Professor

Ahmed Zewail of Cal Tech for ultrafast spectroscopy.

Zewail used ultrafast-laser techniques to study how atoms in a

molecule move during chemical reactions.

Selective photochemistry
Achemistsdream:control
ofchemicalreaction
pathwaybyselectiveoptical
excitationofchemicalbond

The difficulty with using CW light

or long pulses is intramolecular
vibrational redistribution: excite
one bond, and a few fs later, the
whole molecule is vibrating and
the weakest bond breaks.

Gustav Gerber

Coherent control with shaped fs

pulses

SOLUTION:
(1)UsefspulsetobreakbondbeforeIVRoccurs
(2)shapethepulsetooptimisethedesiredyield

Termedcoherentcontrolofchemicalreactions

Gustav Gerber

Pulse shaping in time and frequency domains

Intensityandphaseofanopticalpulsemaybespecifiedineitherthe
timeorfrequencydomain:

E t

I te

i t

E%

S e

Similarly,modulationcanbeperformedintimeorfrequencydomain:

Eout t h t Ein t
difficultmodulatorstooslow!

%
E%
out H Ein
easy!

The Fourier-Synthesis Pulse-shaper

Amplitude mask
Transmission = T(x) = T()

Phase mask
Phase delay = (x) = ()

E%
in

E%
out

grating

grating
f
f

f
f

Fourier Transform Plane

H T ( ) exp[i ( )]

Micromachining with CW lasers

Laser ablation with CW and long pulse (ns) :
High average power
Dominant process: thermal
material heated and vaporised
expansion and expulsion of target material

Possible problems
crater formation
heat affected zone (HAZ)
surface contamination (dross)
shock wave damage to underlying material
limiting precision / resolution
collateral damage

absorption within illuminated region

poor vertical control

Femtosecond pulses in micromachining

Ultrashort high peak intensity (ps or fs) pulses:
High peak power, low mean power
Dominant process: creation of plasma
direct and rapid generation by multi-photon ionisation
incident energy absorbed in plasma
negligible cratering, HAZ, shock-wave damage or dross
strong NL effects only at focus -> sub-surface machining

Extreme conditions* at focus of

ultrashort pulse:
1J pulse focussed to (1 m)3 gives:
T~1MK
p~10Mbar
*Eric Mazur, Harvard University

Femtosecond vs. picosecond laser ablation

ablation with fs pulses appears to be more deterministic

due to (?) statistics of photoionisation (by light field or by multi-photon
absorption) and subsequent avalanche ionisation

Applications of femtosecond micromachining

http://tops.phys.strath.ac.uk/machining.htm

high-precision ablation
encoding information on micron scale
engineering dielectrics for e.g. optical waveguides
surgery...

Surgery with femtosecond laser pulses - 1

http://lasers.llnl.gov/mtp/ultra.html

small, high precision cuts without kerf

no thermal or mechanical damage to surrounding areas
i.e. no burning or coagulation

sub-surface surgery

pig myocardium drilled by excimer laser,

illustrating extensive thermal damage
surrounding the hole.

pig myocardium drilled by an USPL showing

a smooth-sided hole free of thermal damage
to surrounding tissue.

Surgery with femtosecond laser pulses - 2

http://lasers.llnl.gov/mtp/ultra.html

thermal damage and cracking to tooth

enamel caused by 1-ns laser ablation.

smooth hole with no thermal damage

after drilling with a USPL.

Femtosecond laser surgery of cornea - 1

Femtosecond
LASIK

Femtosecond
interstroma

Femtosecond laser surgery of cornea

Lenticle removal using Femtosecond LASIK

(Biomedical) imaging using ultrashort laser pulses

Problems with conventional microscopy
transparent objects require staining (toxic, fading)
3D imaging by sectioning
internal structures (e.g. retina) not always accessible
opaque objects cannot be viewed in transmission
low contrast due to background transmission

Ultrashortpulseimagingmethodsaddresssomeofthese
problems:

Multiphotonimaging
ballisticphotonimaging
opticalcoherencetomography
Trays

Nonlinear microscopy for 3D imaging

filter

femtosecond
pulse

z
region of NL
interaction

detection of
nonlinear signal

Linear processes do not favour the focus

signal~intensity x area~z-2 x z2 ~constant

Nonlinear (multi-photon) processes favour the focus

signal~(intensity)2 x area~z-4 x z2 ~ z-2 (2-photon)

signal~(intensity)3 x area~z-6 x z2 ~ z-4 (3-photon)

Two photon
fluorescence
t

Three photon
fluorescence
t

Third harmonic
generation

Two-Photon Fluorescence* Imaging

*requires fluorescent dye
Pollen grain
(Clivia Miniata)
Conventional image
(using fluorescence)

~14 m

46 sections separated by 0.5 m

in the axial dimension.
2 seconds/image
1.5 m axial resolution
200 mW in 16 beamlets

Imaging by Third Harmonic Generation (THG)

THG occurs at focus of intense ultrashort pulse
Uniform material:
THG light from either side of focus interferes destructively

Discontinous material:
allows some constructive interference and THG emission.

THG imaging depends on(3)

THG is sensitive to interfaces
Demonstration using an optical fiber in index-matching fluid
(~100 fs pulses at 1.2 m, 1 kHz repetition rate.)

125 m
Barad et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, 922 (1997)

Sectional THG images of spiral algae formation

Squier et al, Optics Express 3, p. 315 (1998)

More Real-Time THG Images

Artificial blood vessel (two cover slips) with real red blood cells flowing in it.
Scanning scheme used a Lissajou pattern.

QuickTime and a
Cinepak decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

Time-resolved imaging for opaque media

scattering medium

diffusive photons (late arrival):

large lateral scattering, high intensity)
snake photons
ballistic photons (early arrival):
small lateral scattering, low intensity

Scattering is a major problem in e.g. mammography

The problem is weak signals:
mean free path for photons = Ls ~ 0.5 mm for breast tissue
sample length = L=25mm
fraction of ballistic photons is exp(L / Ls) = exp(50) = 1022
but

for a pulsed laser with 1 Watt average power, there are only
1019 photons per second ...

Optical Coherence Ranging and

Tomography
cross-sectional micron-scale
imaging
real-time, in-situ, in-vivo
optical fibre coupling for
internal organs
commercial device available
for ophthalmologists

This work has been pioneered by Jim Fujimoto and coworkers of MIT.
Huang, et al., Science, 254 (1991)

OCT can see otherwise invisible micro-tears

in
the retina

Photographs cant
see the tears

Inside a blood vessel (in vitro)

The OCT images have significantly higher resolution than
intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).

OCT

IVUS

Brezinski, et al., Am. J. Cardiology 77 (1996)

THz imaging for biomedical applications

fills THz gap between microwave and optical frequencies
mixed time / frequency domain spectroscopy
chemical fingerprints at THz frequencies
(e.g. rotational transitions)
strong sensitivity to water content
coherent method (like OCT)
imaging on 100 micron scale
many variation of imaging method:

intensity
time-of-flight
absorption at key frequencies (f1)
relative absorption (f1/f2)

THz imaging of biomedical samples

Centre of Medical Imaging Research

University of Leeds
TeraVision project (EU-IST)

Surrey Femtosecond high-power broadband source

Principles:

LASER:
self-phase modulation
in Ti Sapphire oscillator
->
<100fs pulses
AMPLIFICATION:
regenerative chirpedpulse amplification
->
mJ pulses

CONTINUUM GENERATION :
nonlinear processes
->
white light continuum
PARAMETRIC CONVERSION:
white-light seeded
parametric amplification
->
broadband J pulses

System:
CW DPSS
pump

TiS
osc.

SP-OPO
TiS CPA
RGA

HG
WLG
OPA

kHz DPSS pump

}
}

700-1000nm
350-500nm
1.1-1.6m
550-800nm

HG

HG

750-840nm
1.1-3.0m
300nm-1.2m

FM

3-10m

80MHz
rep. rate

1-100 kHz
rep. rate

High rep rate near-infrared system (Spectra)

high rep rate (80MHz) for good signal-to-noise
workhorse system for communications wavelengths
<200fs pulses over range 350 - 1600 nm

Dual colour / mid-infrared system (Coherent)

Ti-sapphire oscillator and regenerative
amplifier
high pulse energies for THz beam
generation, material processing, and
upconversion of weak luminesence
dual parametric amplifiers for nondegenerate pump-probe, and difference
frequency generator for mid-infrared
wavelength range 550nm to >10m
ultrashort pulse version: < 60fs pulses

Broadband sources for spectroscopy

UV

visible

Ti-S
THG

Ti-S
SHG

NIR

MIR

FIR

mmW

RF

Ti-S
laser
OPA

SFM
HG-OPA

DFM
THz
FEL

Ultrafast
electronics

Laboratory Layout
3980
(OPO
picker)

Dispersion compensation, time delays

3980
(OPO
SHG)

diagnostics /
pulse shaper
OPAL (optical
parametric osc.)

spin
dynamics
3980
(SHG /
picker)

Tsunami 3960
(Ti-saphire osc.)

V5 pump
Mira Seed
(Ti-sapphire oscillator)

Millenia XS
pump

Rega 9050
(regenerative amplifier)

autocorrelator

low temp.
measurements

Experimental stations

auto-correlator
/ pulse shaper
Rega 9050
(stretcher /
compressor)

EO
sampling /
microscopy

laser
diode
pumpprobe

Coherent dual-OPA system

V10 pump

Experimental stations

THz
spectroscopy
OPA 9850
(parametric
amplifier)
OPA 9850
(parametric
amplifier)

SHG 9850
(harmonic
generator)
DFG 9850
(difference
generator)

Mid-infrared
pump-probe

XFROG
u p c o n v e rs io n

Spectra-Physics OPO