35fs-ultrafast-laser with high pulse energy

• Subject Area: Production Technology
• Term: Funded in 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 447787880

Ultrafast lasers can reach very high intensities due to their short pulse length which lead to a non-linear interaction of light with matter. The resulting effects give insight into fundamental physical processes and can be used for novel methods in material processing.The laser-system has, as a result of the very short pulse length, a broad spectral bandwidth in comparison to continuous-wave lasers. This bandwidth can be used as an additional degree-of-freedom to shape the pulse in space and time and therefore also influence the interaction. Thus this opens the possibility to investigate fundamental physical processes. These will be transferred to production technologies to achieve a better quality of laser processes, to increase efficiency, and to open new fields of applications.The high pulse energy enables investigating effects under extreme conditions and to transfer results to large scale production methods. Based on the high pulse energies, filaments in air can be ignited which act as controllable electrical conductors. These can be for example used for remote electrical discharge machining. Thus, ultrashort-pulse processes, which traditionally find application in microscale machining, can be transferred to large-scale macro material processing. Besides material processing, such a laser system offers applications in medicine to exemplarily identify tissue in-vivo fast and precise while being minimal invasive.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: 35fs-Ultrakurzpulslaser mit hoher Pulsenergie
• Instrumentation Group: 5740 Laser in der Fertigung
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Michael Schmidt