Michelle Stock, PhD President mlstock consulting Ann Arbor, MI Member of SME’s Industrial Laser Community
VIEWPOINTS Ultrafast Lasers, Photonics West and Mi-Light F
or those of you unfamiliar with ultrafast lasers, they produce pulses of light so short (in the range of trillionth of a second (or ‘picosec- ond’) down to a quadrillionth of a second or ‘femtosecond’) that they can freeze the short-
duration motion of molecules to produce images of what happens on the molecular level. Since all of the photons of the output of these specialized laser sources are packed into such a short time duration, pulses from commercially available ultrafast (also known as ultrashort-pulsed) lasers have peak powers on the Megawatt level and beyond. With such high peak powers, very interesting
physics come into play as the ultrafast laser output is focused on nearly any material of interest–often glass, metals, ceramics, and semiconductors. At high enough intensities, a process called “cold” or “athermal” abla- tion occurs–material is removed through vaporization rather than melting (as would happen with longer- pulsed or CW sources). This allows removal of material on the micron- and nano-scale, very controllably and repeatably, and increasingly, at rates that make processing of delicate structures such as cardiac stents and highly precise fuel injection nozzles commercially feasible. The special properties of ultrafast laser mate- rial processing have made many companies take note, and there were many interesting updates at Photonics West (San Francisco, February 1–6). Ultrafast lasers were a hot topic throughout the
event-packed week of Photonics West. During a panel on global photonics markets, TRUMPF’s Vice Chair- man Peter Leibinger emphasized that his company is providing technology for “cold” material processing as a key for making next generation products in the consumer electronics, medical, and automotive are- nas. His words were backed up on the exhibition fl oor, where TRUMPF, along with several other laser compa- nies such as IPG, Coherent (Lumera), SpectraPhysics, IMRA, Amplitude Systemes, and JDSU (Time Band- width Products) brought forth either new or improved offerings of ultrashort pulsed lasers, and in some cases, laser-based tools, to meet growing demands for indus- trial solutions.
LF32
MfgEngMedia.comLS32
MfgEngMedia.org
This article originally appeared on Manufacturing Engineering’s Viewpoints Blog. Visit at
http://www.sme.org/memedia/lasers/
Beyond the exhibition fl oor, full sessions on ultra- fast laser designs and applications enabled by ultrafast lasers were held throughout the week. And during the prestigious PRISM Awards, presented midweek, the award for the “Advanced Manufacturing” category was made to Nanoscribe for an ultrafast laser-based 3D printer. This tool performs 3D lithography based on two-photon polymerization, enabled by ultrashort pulses and capable of creating very high resolution processing with features as small as 160 nm in a writ- ing area of 100 × 100 mm2. Moving attention to other activities at Photonics
West, the SME Industrial Laser Community held a meeting at Directed Light’s booth, giving members a chance to catch up and focus on upcoming activities. The National Photonics Initiative (NPI) held an Ad- vanced Manufacturing Subcommittee meeting to work on developing a strategy and plan for a national policy making photonics a key cornerstone of US Advanced Manufacturing. Mark Taggart of Laser Mechanisms, Neil Ball of Directed Light, and I (all members of the ILC) have been deeply involved in the work of this Subcommittee since Mark was tapped as its Chair for Fall 2012 to Fall 2013. For more information, see
www.lightourfuture.org.
Please note that Mi-Light, the Michigan Photonics Industry Cluster, is now part of the industrial laser land- scape. Launched in April 2013, this trade association has grown to 28 Members from 11 Founding Members at the time of the launch. Mi-Light is a microcosm of what is happening within the NPI. We have received funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to support initiatives including ed- ucation, supply chain mapping, advocacy, and network- ing. For more information, visit
www.mi-light.org. Dr. Michelle L. Stock is President of mlstock con- sulting, offering business development and marketing services primarily focused on the ultrafast laser market. She has been involved in commercializing fi ber lasers for nearly 20 years. She is involved with the SME ILC, OSA, SPIE and the National Photonics Initiative, and is the fi rst Chair of Mi-Light, the Michigan Photonics Industry Cluster.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208