Yangtze River Delta G60 laser alliance guide
据悉，斯坦福大学的科研人员报道在芯片上制造出实用的蓝宝石钛激光器：钛：蓝宝石-绝缘体集成激光器和放大器。 相关研究以“Titanium:sapphire-on-insulator integrated lasers and amplifiers”为题发表在《Nature》上。
Ti:sapphire lasers are essential for advancing basic research and technological applications, including the development of optical frequency combs, two-photon microscopy, and experimental quantum optics. Ti:Sapphire lasers are unmatched in terms of bandwidth and tuning range, however, this performance also comes at a high price. Titanium-sapphire lasers are massive, about a cubic foot in size. They are expensive, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars each. They also need enough energy from other high-power lasers to function properly, and these lasers themselves can cost up to $30,000. Its use is limited due to its large size, high cost, and high light pumping power. As a result, titanium:sapphire lasers have never been as widely used in practice as they should have – until now.
Here, the researchers demonstrate a single-crystal titanium:sapphire-insulator (Ti:SaOI) photonic platform that enables significant miniaturization, cost reduction, and scalability of titanium:sapphire technology. A huge leap forward in scale, efficiency, and cost resulted in a titanium-sapphire laser being created on a chip. Compared to any ti:sapphire laser produced in the past, the prototype is four orders of magnitude smaller (i.e., 1/10,000th of the original) and three orders of magnitude lower (i.e., 1/10,000th of the original ti:sapphire laser) than any other ti:sapphire laser produced in the past. This is a huge step forward both in terms of economies of scale and cost.
First, by fabricating a low-loss sound bar mode resonator, the researchers achieved an ultra-low, sub-milliwatt laser threshold for titanium-sapphire lasers. Then, by improving the mode constraints in the Ti:SaOI waveguide by orders of magnitude, the researchers achieved an integrated solid-state (i.e., non-semiconductor) optical amplifier operating at less than 1 μm. The researchers demonstrated unprecedented distortion-free picosecond pulse amplification with a peak power of 1.0kW. Finally, the researchers demonstrated a tunable integrated titanium:sapphire laser that can be pumped with a low-cost, miniature, off-the-shelf green laser diode. This opens the door to new models of Ti:Sapphire lasers, such as massively scalable Ti:Sapphire laser array systems that can be used for a wide range of applications. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, the researchers used the Ti:SaOI laser array as the only optical control for a quantum electrodynamics experiment with man-made atom cavities in silicon carbide. This work is a key step towards democratizing titanium:sapphire technology, which reduces cost and volume by three orders of magnitude and introduces solid-state broadband amplification of submicron wavelength light.
Figure 1: Low-loss photonics and sub-milliwatt threshold titanium:sapphire lasers in single-crystal insulated sapphires.
In this work, the researchers demonstrated chip-integrated, wideband-tunable and scalable titanium-sapphire lasers and amplifiers on a single-crystal insulator sapphire photonic platform. In the absence of design optimization, the lasers in this study have reached or exceeded the tuning range of commercial solutions. Low-threshold and non-resonant-pumped compact Ti:SaOI lasers replace complex and expensive (> $100,000) Ti:Sapphire laser systems, reducing cost and size by three orders of magnitude and power consumption by two orders of magnitude for the overall system. This will lead to the democratization of high-performance titanium-sapphire lasers, with significant implications for research and technology.
Figure 2: Ti:SaOI integrated optical amplifier.
In this work, the researchers demonstrated chip-integrated, wideband tunable and scalable titanium:sapphire lasers and amplifiers on a single-crystal sapphire-insulator photonics platform. Without optimizing the design, the lasers in this study were able to meet or exceed the tuning range of commercial solutions. Compact titanium:SaOI lasers with low threshold and non-resonance pumps replace complex and expensive (>$100,000) titanium:sapphire laser systems, reducing cost and size by three orders of magnitude and power consumption by two orders of magnitude for the overall system. This will democratize high-performance titanium:sapphire lasers, with a significant impact on research and technology.
Figure 3: Wide-tuned, narrow-linewidth chip-integrated titanium:sapphire lasers.
Figure 4: Quantum photonics of artificial atoms driven by an integrated Ti:SaOI laser.
Integration of titanium on chips: Sapphire technology is a decisive step towards achieving massively scalable titanium:sapphire systems, both monolithic and integrated with passive materials. The method proposed in this study is compatible with the co-integration of platforms such as silicon nitride and lithium niobate, enabling submicron wavelength and frequency flexible titanium: sapphire lasers, integrated frequency-doubling lasers, on-chip supercontinuum generators, and integrated optical parametric amplifiers.
Figure 5: Diode-pumped on-chip titanium:sapphire laser.
Figure 6: Ti:SaOI device manufacturing process.
In the field of quantum physics, this new type of laser offers a low-cost yet practical solution that can significantly reduce the scale of state-of-the-art quantum computers.
In the field of neuroscience, researchers can foresee its direct application in optogenetics, a field that allows scientists to control neurons with relatively bulky optical fibers that direct light inside the brain. They say that smaller lasers could be integrated into more compact probes, opening up new avenues for experimentation.
In ophthalmology, it may find new uses in laser surgery alongside the Nobel Prize-winning chirped pulse amplification technology, or provide a cheaper and more compact optical coherence tomography technique for assessing retinal health.
As a next step, the team will work on perfecting the chip-scale titanium:sapphire laser and investigating how to mass-produce such lasers on wafers, thousands of units at a time. Thousands of lasers are mounted on a 4-inch wafer, according to the researchers. The cost per laser is almost zero, which is so exciting.
Paper Links:
Jelena Vučković, Titanium:sapphire-on-insulator integrated lasers and amplifiers, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07457-2. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07457-2
Welcome everyone to participate in the activities held by the Yangtze River Delta G60 Laser Alliance:
Application of laser intelligent manufacturing in new energy vehicles:
July 29-31, 2024, Hefei Fengda International Hotel, Anhui
Welcome to the conference and exhibition!