Femtosecond Lasers – fs Fiber Lasers – fs Capable Laser Amplifiers

What is a Femtosecond Laser?

A Femtosecond laser (fs laser or fs pulsed laser) is a laser which emits optical pulses with a duration below 1 picosecond.

Pulsed Lasers that produce less than 10 picoseconds pulses (e.g., femtosecond lasers) belong to the category of Ultrafast Lasers or Ultrashort Pulse Lasers, even though they may still be called picosecond lasers.  Ultrafast Lasers are ideal for a variety of challenging applications that require high intensity, high peak power performance.

A femtosecond (fs) is one quadrillionth of a second or 10−15 seconds.  Femtosecond pulses are often generated through a process known as mode-locking. Mode-locked lasers utilize phase locking to interfere a large number of lasing modes together in such a way as to cause the generation of ultrafast pulses.

As a result of having such short pulse widths, femtosecond lasers have incredibly high peak powers typically in the MW to GW range. At a given pulse energy, the peak power of the laser increases as the pulse width gets shorter. Therefore, femtosecond lasers have much higher peak power than longer pulsed picosecond, nanosecond, or millisecond pulsed lasers.  These higher peak powers can lead to an increase in removal rates in material processing applications, and increased brightness and absorption in microscopy applications.

Femtosecond Laser Application Benefits

In material processing applications, femtosecond laser pulses provide high peak powers, often several MW, creating a breakdown between the electrons and atoms in the material. This breakdown, known as a “Coulomb explosion,” is a cold processing alternative to the conventional thermal ablation utilized by longer pulsed lasers. Ablation is a thermal process that relies on local heating, melting, and vaporization of molecules and atoms. Ablation can be detrimental for some laser applications as it typically creates unwanted HAZ (heat affected zone), recast, burrs and splatter, all of which are negative effects of heat, making femtosecond lasers a better option for applications requiring precise, high-quality results. This cold ablation affect also reduces the need for post processing of the material. Femtosecond lasers can be utilized for non-thermal or cold ablation of any material, including metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, coatings, glass, plastics, diamonds, and PET. Ultrafast lasers can even operate on layered substrates.

In recent years, femtosecond fiber-based lasers have started to replace older, bulkier Ti:Sapphire lasers in the neuroscience fields, specifically multi-photon microscopy. The maintenance, operational, and total cost of ownership of fiber-based femtosecond lasers are much lower when compared to the Ti:sapphire lasers. In addition, the compactness, air-cooling, reduced complexity, and overall increase in performance of femtosecond fiber lasers make them a superior solution for many laboratory requirements.

The Alcor laser platform is a great contender for replacing these legacy laser sources. The Alcor ultrafast fiber laser also allows you to place the controller in a rack mount, while positioning the smaller laser head where you need it. At one-tenth the volume, twice the power, and half the cost, our fs Fiber Lasers are perfect replacements for old, outdated Ti:Sapphire lasers. With useful wavelengths like 920, 1040, and 1064nm, you aren’t paying extra for unnecessary wavelength tunability. With a compact, air-cooled, maintenance-free design, and an industry-standard beam height, you’ll see a fast ROI with less downtime and more room to breathe after easily dropping one of these plug-and-play fs Fiber Lasers into your old Ti:Sapphire laser footprint.

Our Femtosecond Laser Products

RPMC lasers offers a wide range of high-quality femtosecond pulsed lasers designed with repetition rates ranging from single-shot up to 80 MHz, ultrashort pulse durations down to 100 femtoseconds, and various pulse energy specifications, depending on the configuration.

Our femtosecond lasers are available in 515 nm, 532 nm, 920nm, 1030 nm, 1035 nm, 1064 nm, and 1300 nm wavelengths, with average power up to 30 W available.  We supply diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers, fiber lasers, and DPSS amplifiers in our femtosecond laser category.

Our Femtosecond Laser Experience

RPMC is your Femtosecond Laser Supplier! We have supplied many fiber-based femtosecond laser systems to various researchers, laboratories, and materials science development teams around the country. Often, the researchers we work with don’t have extensive laser experience, and rely on us to help them choose the best laser for their application or project.

					
					
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Alcor Series

Alcor

The Alcor series is the most advanced femtosecond fiber laser emitting at 920 nm or 1064 nm, designed explicitly for multiphoton microscopy, with the 920-1 & 920-2 providing the best performance on the market with ultrashort, clean pulses, all at a competitive price. Our lasers offer high pulse energy, short and clean pulses, and ultimate peak powers. With an ultra-compact, robust, and air-cooled design, our lasers are highly stable and reliable with low maintenance. Our XSight and FLeX fiber external modules allow for precise power control and gating and GDD precompensation. The Alcor series provides a complete and reliable solution for multi-photon microscopy, with seamless OEM integration. 

Altair Series

Altair: Femtosecond Laser

The ALTAIR series produces high average powers up to 20W and ultrashort femtosecond pulses of <150 fs (<250 fs for VERSA configuration) at a high repetition rate of 80 MHz (others available). Ideal for bioimaging/biophotonics applications such as multiphoton microscopy, the ALTAIR provides high stability and excellent beam quality due to its mode-locked fiber design. It offers a range of options such as GDD pre-compensation, custom wavelengths, harmonics, repetition rates, and more. With a simplified fiber design that requires little to no maintenance compared to DPSS and Ti:Sapphire counterparts, the ALTAIR is the preferred solution for both OEM and researchers in the microscopy and life sciences fields.  

Diadem Series

DIADEM Series

The DIADEM series is a compact, versatile, air-cooled, high-energy, ultrafast femtosecond laser, operating at 1030 or 1064 nm for advanced micro-machining applications. Available with up to 40µJ of pulse energy, pulse widths down to ≈ 400 fs, an M² < 1.2, and single-shot up to 2MHz repetition rate, the DIADEM has many pulse control features such as adjustable pulse duration, selectable repetition rate from 40 MHz down to single-shot, or fine pulse energy tuning so that pulses can be emitted in various modes (on demand via external signal, burst of pulses with configurable pulse separation). A 1300 nm version is also available for deep brain imaging. 

neoMOS Series

neoMOS 700fsThe neoMOS ultrashort pulse laser series is a reliable and low maintenance system designed for 24/7 industrial use. Its ultra-compact laser head has the smallest footprint available, making it easy to integrate into different systems. The laser systems are highly flexible and can be customized to meet specific needs, providing a wide range of laser parameters and pulse durations. With available pulse durations between 700fs and 70ps, repetition rates from single-shot to 80MHz, up to 500µJ pulse energy, average output powers up to 100W, multi-megawatt peak powers, and perfect TEM00 beam quality, these lasers can tackle many applications and are ideal for processing demanding materials such as transparent glasses and plastics.

neoAMP Series

neoVAN - DPSS AmplifierThe neoAMP series includes the neoVAN and neoYb DPSS laser amplifiers, designed to boost the average power or pulse energy for a wide range of applications. The flexible system design ensures a high degree of scalability, and the ultra-compact modules are easy to integrate into existing processing or scientific systems. The neoVAN and neoYb amplifiers are highly reliable and offer proven long-term stability, enabling a range of applications that include high peak power, short pulse picosecond lasers for micromachining, or single-frequency radiation for gravitational wave detection.