November 2022
Links to Topics
Coffee – Quiz with Prize and Discount
Featured Company (Novanta Photonics / Laser Quantum)
❂Lasers
| A research team in Hamburg generated nice, clean, few cycle, 7-fs pulses from the cascaded multipass cells from a PHAROS laser from Light Conversion. Importantly, only dielectric mirrors are used. Overall transmission is over 80% and the 7-fs pulses are quite clean, having over 80% energy in the main peak. To read the paper, entitled “White Light Generation and Few Cycle Pulse Compression in Cascaded Multipass Cells,” click here. |
Scientists working on laser applications have developed a new technique for high-efficiency and high-quality ablation of silicon — using BiBurst mode. The team has demonstrated that the BiBurst mode can ablate silicon at a volume rate 4.5 times faster than the single-pulse mode, with better ablation quality when delivering the same amount of total laser energy used in the process. The main element of the experimental setup was the PHAROS laser system with BiBurst mode capability from Light Conversion. This laser system delivered femtosecond pulses with a duration of 220 fs at a near-infrared wavelength of 1030 nm. To read the full paper detailing this research, entitled “Enhanced ablation efficiency for silicon by femtosecond laser microprocessing with GHz bursts in MHz bursts (BiBurst)”, click here. |
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| When Light Conversion says their products are reliable, they mean it! Take a look at the PHAROS stability graphs — pretty stable since 2009! This particular femtosecond laser is owned by their first industrial client and has been working 24/7 for 13 years and counting. The average downtime of all PHAROS lasers owned by this customer is 2%, and that includes the full service of complete material processing machines. How impressive is that? What is the longest lifetime of the devices that you have? |
❂Optics
Did you know that lasers can cut glass tubes and cuvettes? With ultrashort pulsed lasers and Holo/Or’s special curved glass cutting diffractive optical elements (DOEs), you can cut up to several mm of curved glass tube with a spot as small as 3 µm! Holo/Or’s DOEs can create modified Bessel-like beams that will maintain their tight focus inside the tube over the entire thickness. These DOEs can be tailored to the focus lens you are currently using for cutting glass tubes, or Holo/Or can supply them with an aspheric focus optic as a complete module. For more details, contact Holo/Or. |
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| Here is another impressive image from Tony Hallas. This is NGC 6559, a star forming region located in the constellation of Sagittarius, about 5000 light years away! This photo was taken using LRGB astronomy filters from Chroma Technology. To see more of Tony’s work on his website ASTROPHOTO.COM, click here. |
Curious about the spectrum of light that can be used in astrophotography? An article entitled “Guide to the Electromagnetic Spectrum in Astronomy” now appears in on the website astrobites.org. This article focuses on the following questions:
Also check out the stunning examples of astrophotography in the guide! |
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| Here is another image shared by Tony Hallas: the center of the Andromeda Galaxy, located about 2.5 million light-years away from Earth. This photo was taken using Chroma astronomical filters in California. To see more of Tony’s work on his website ASTROPHOTO.COM, click here. Chroma Technology manufactures the highest quality astronomy filters with durable, sputtered hard coatings using single substrates of the best glass, eliminating the need for laminations. All primary filter coatings are applied on the front surface and anti-reflection coatings on the rear surface to prevent ghosting and to maximize transmission. |
❂Cameras and Imaging
Photonis introduces Neutronis™, the world’s first on-site, neutron imaging system. Neutronis harnesses the power of neutron radiography to enable a new dimension for non-destructive testing. Neutron radiography uses a neutron beam to penetrate high density metals to examine internal structures and organic materials in exceptional detail. Neutrons interact with lighter elements to reveal what x-rays can’t see:
Watch this short video for more information! |
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❂Systems
| In the 1990s hard disks were going through a revolution of higher and higher data densities. This required radical designs of the air-bearing surface between the disc and the read head. Controlling the polishing of the read head was difficult and required metrology to control. Several companies bought hundreds of profiling microscopes to measure every read head because defective air-bearing surfaces led to early disk failure. Other companies thought they could buy a few profilers to control the process statistically and save money. Those companies that tried to skimp on testing to save money were all out of business in five years. Äpre Instruments manufactures interferometers and also develops and supplies interferometer software for metrology. Äpre meets today’s needs with upgrades and unmatched service, and is prepared to help you advance your capabilities for tomorrow. |
Äpre Instruments presents an easy, step-by-step method to measure an optical wedge substrate. This process uses an Äpre laser Fizeau interfero-meter along with their REVEAL interferometer acquisition / analysis software. Watch this short video to see how easy this process can be! The video demonstrates how to:
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