FEATURED ARTICLE Ultrafast Lasers BY MICHELLE STOCK
If you have ever been to Auckland, New Zealand, you know the natural beauty of its surroundings and the vibrancy of the city. What you may not know is that the campus of the University of Auckland is home to a unique facility, one that uses the power of intense pulses of light to manipulate, measure and machine matter — it uses photons as its ‘machinery.’
The Photon Factory This unexpected find is the result of the efforts of Dr. Cather Simpson, who joined the faculty of the University of Auckland in 2007. Soon after arriving, Dr. Simpson challenged herself to “bring the rich versatility of high-tech ultrashort laser pulses to New Zealand academic and industry innovators.” This challenge resulted in the creation of a facility dubbed the ‘Photon Factory.’ The Photon Factory fulfills multiple functions: it is a laboratory for education, research, innovation and even economic development.
Dr. Simpson became familiar with ultrafast lasers and their extremely short pulses (on the order of 100 fs = 100 x 10-15 seconds) while pursuing research in ultrafast energy conversion in molecules. She used them as a tool in her lab when she started her career as a professor at Case Western Reserve University
Powering the Photon Factory in New Zealand
(CWRU). Light can be converted by molecules into other forms of energy; by studying the dynamics of molecular complexes excited by light on femtosecond to microsecond timescales through both experiments and modeling, it is possible to learn how molecules direct the energy acquired in light absorption. The ultimate goal of these investigations is to understand how the structure and environment influence molecular functions so that photochemical and photophysical behavior can be both predicted and tailored.
Having achieved tenure at CWRU, she found the opportunity to move to New Zealand compelling, and there her research has flourished to span from fundamental spectroscopy to applied device development. The Photon Factory is the facility and resource she has developed to accomplish her research goals and to bring the power of laser light to New Zealand, and beyond.
A Factory of Ideas & People, Powered by Light How did the Photon Factory come into being? When Dr. Simpson moved to New Zealand, the country was undergoing a transformation in how academic research was being funded. A newly-formed government was in the process of making structural changes, closing the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology and moving some of its functions to a newly created agency, the Ministry of Business Innovation and
The ‘Photon Factory’ at the University of Auckland (left) and Dr. Cather Simpson (right) along with members of her team of students, researchers, & entrepreneurs 8 LIATODAY FOCUS: LASERS IN MANUFACTURING MARCH/APRIL 2016
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