Manufacturing with Light 2: Lasers Making Lasers

This proposal falls under the Manufacturing with light call and addresses the area of Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) as a route to manufacturing high optical quality, fully single crystal lasing waveguides. PLD is an established technique for deposition of a range of materials, but few so far have used it to grow single crystal structures for application as thin-film lasers. This project is directed at this specific area, and has end goals of high average power (>100W) laser and amplifier operation, from compact (< 1square cm) gain chips, emitting laser wavelengths in the 1-, 2-, and 3- micron region.
The second goal is to demonstrate the utility of these devices in "add-on" amplifier modules that can be tailored for commercial lasers systems, to enhance their output performance by an order of magnitude and address high-value laser-based manufacturing applications, including materials processing, the life-sciences and medical areas in particular. Engaging with laser manufacturing companies, the UK Association of Industrial Laser Users, and the EPSRC Centre of Innovative Manufacturing - Laser-based Production Processes at Heriot-Watt University, we will determine an optimum route for capitalisation and knowledge transfer of the fabrication expertise of this novel platform architecture.
As a booster project, we will direct our efforts towards maximising the impact of the optimisation processes to create new waveguide gain media that offer unique (and power-scalable) laser performance beyond what is currently available in the industrial laser market place. Coupled with our industrial partners we will test and evaluate the developed amplifier modules for their relevance as potential laser-tools in the manufacturing sector.

The main beneficiaries of the proposed research will be:
(1) materials' scientists (via our results on novel growth of laser-deposited thin films),
(2) the laser research community (from our amplifier results)
(3) the UK (and beyond) laser-based manufacturing sector
(4) UK-based laser industry (three companies, Fianium Ltd, Rofin-Sinar UK, and Elforlight, are listed as exemplars)
In greater detail:
(1) The PLD community world-wide is interested in all such novel materials developments. To date, nobody (apart from us) has used PLD to grow films of thicknesses within the few microns to few tens of microns, so our results have already set new benchmarks of materials capability. In this booster project we will refine the successes in new materials and single-crystal film growth. Furthermore, the techniques that will be developed in this project will provide crucial insights into new practical methods for fabricating devices at meaningful rates and greater control and flexibility.
(2) There is a thriving UK laser community and in the area of diode-pumped solid-state lasers Universities such as Southampton, St. Andrews, Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt, Imperial College, and Manchester are all major international players. All these institutions also have major efforts in ultrafast lasers, while Southampton and St. Andrews lead in waveguide laser development. Our work will impact strongly upon this community through our publications, conference presentations and collaboration.
(3) Laser manufacturers and system integrators will be able to benefit from a new platform technology that will provide a reduced footprint and excellent efficiency for laser-based materials processing, marking and cutting in the areas of manufacturing, semiconductor and energy, medical, and healthcare. With these devices produced in this project we expect to be able to expand the parameter space for laser-tools suited for manufacturing systems to be utilised in high-value processes, enhancing quality and performance at the right price. The UK is very well placed to exploit this opportunity as is already home to a large number of laser application developers and system integrators (e.g. OpTek, M-Solv, Spectrum Technologies and Laser Micromachining Ltd).
(4) We have given the names of three companies above, but there are other companies in the UK, and many companies in the EU, Asia, and the USA who would be interested in this platform technology. Manufacturing is set to extend its reach in new high-technology areas and we fully expect this to be led by UK-based companies.