• Lasers & Sources

    The laserfocusworld.com Lasers & Sources channel features articles and other content that discuss the design and applications of all types of lasers, amplifiers, and other advanced sources like LEDs.

    Recent

    Credit: Zhenxu Bai
    The team’s diamond Raman vortex laser experimental optical platform with Zhenxu Bai (left) and Hui Chen (right) of the paper. A physical image of the device is also shown on the right-hand monitor in the background.
    (Image credit: ProPhotonix)
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    (Image credit: Modulight)
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    Credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
    Shubhadeep Biswas, then-SLAC project scientist (left), and Matthias Kling, professor of photon science and applied physics at Stanford University and the director of the Science, Research and Development Division at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (the laser isn’t on).
    Credit: VitreaLab
    FIGURE 1. VitreaLab’s quantum light chip (QLC) emits hundreds of laser beams.
    (Image credit: Exalos)
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    Highlights

    A new route to chaos: Starting from a subharmonic frequency (the single peak), sidebands emerge as the control parameters is tuned (the modulated subharmonic state). Many frequencies form a very broad spectrum, which indicates chaos is being generated.
    Sally Cole Johnson
    April 4, 2025
    An unexpected modulated subharmonic route to chaos via a breathing soliton laser discovered by an international team of scientists extends laser chaos from Maxwell-Bloch equations...
    Credit: Aeluma, Inc.
    Aeluma’s 300-mm III-V-on-silicon deposition (left) and selective-area heteroepitaxy on 300-mm silicon photonics (right).
    Bei Shi
    April 1, 2025
    How can we scale optical interconnect technology for next-gen systems? One solution is silicon photonics that integrate quantum dot optical gain.
    Credit: Milad Abolhasani
    A new method to tune quantum dot bandgaps taps light—which speeds the process, and is more energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable. (Credit: Milad Abolhasani)
    Sally Cole Johnson
    March 26, 2025
    Existing methods to tune bandgaps of perovskite quantum dots—which are less than ideal because they rely on chemical modifications or high-temperature reactions—just got an environmenta...
    © Endeavor Business Media
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    In Episode 44 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast, Antonio Castelo, EPIC’s technology manager for Biomedical and Lasers, talks with Alexander Weigl, head of product ...
    (Image credit: Chromacity)
    chromacity
    March 25, 2025
    The Chromacity 520 femtosecond laser has use as a fixed wavelength source to deliver ultrashort pulses with pulse duration of 100 to 200 fs.

    Recommended

    (Credit: Phlux Technology)
    FIGURE 1. The functional elements of a time-of-flight (ToF) laser rangefinder (LRF) where the return signal is detected by an avalanche photodiode (APD).
    Ben White
    March 21, 2025
    By offering improved sensitivity, extended range, and faster recovery times, the latest generation of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are poised to revolutionize the field of distance...
    (Photo credit: Chromacity)
    FIGURE 1. A Chromacity engineer aligns an ultrafast fiber laser with second-harmonic generation.
    Wojciech Gora
    Feb. 10, 2025
    Fiber-based ultrafast lasers—with pulses of one-tenth of one-trillionth of a second—continue to evolve, and near-term advances will expand their use to materials processing, nonlinear...
    (Image credit: Nativo Calavera)
    FIGURE 1. Transforming bacteria into solar-powered lasers: we extract light-harvesting structures from bacteria (left), enhance them with proprietary specially engineered lasing units (middle), and place them into a lasing cavity (right) to create a new type of laser that runs directly on sunlight. The natural light-gathering rings (green/purple) of purple bacteria measure 60-nm across and achieve near-perfect efficiency in energy transfer of captured photons.
    Erik Gauger
    Feb. 7, 2025
    A new way to power space missions piggybacks on bacteria's efficient light-harvesting abilities to create sunlight-powered lasers—and could enable power transmission between satellites...
    (Image credit: TeraXion)
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    TeraXion Inc
    Feb. 5, 2025
    The VINCI-1064 femtosecond fiber laser has a SESAM-free oscillator architecture.
    (Image credit: Energetiq)
    energetiq
    The EQS-10 EUV light source delivers up to 4x the energy per pulse with an operating frequency up to 5 kHz.