Day: September 25, 2025

Introduction to industrial fiber laser technology

A team of scientists from the U.S. presented a new fiber laser technology that allows for industrial laser systems to emit attosecond laser beam pulses. Usually, attosecond science presents several difficulties because it is based on world-class fiber laser devices.

Accessibility advantages of industrial systems

The opportunity to apply industrial laser systems instead of complex devices that need huge laboratory tools and cleanroom environments enlarges new possibilities, resulting in higher accessibility to researchers from all spheres. The generation of short laser beam pulses required for attosecond research needs the light to be directed through tubes filled with noble gases (xenon or argon) to compress them in time.

Nonlinear compression for attosecond pulses

The scientists claim that nonlinear compression performed by the fiber laser is considered to be efficient when driven in molecular gases, employing laser beam pulses substantially longer than a few cycles, because nonlinearity is increased.

Testing and pulse compression

The fiber laser technology has already been tested, and the scientists have succeeded in compressing about 100-cycle laser beam pulses generated by an industrial fiber laser system by applying molecular gases – nitrous oxide in the tubes leading to a change in pulse length.

Molecular alignment and supercontinuum generation

These laser systems allow for simultaneously driving molecular alignment and supercontinuum generation in a gas-filled capillary. Pulses of single-cycle laser beams are considered feasible to produce with this fiber laser technology. Industrial laser systems that can be easily bought at an appropriately accessible price now are applied to emit attosecond pulses.

Importance of gas choice and pulse duration

The choice of gas and the durations of the laser beam pulses play a crucial role. For example, the use of molecular gas results in an enhanced effect. Therefore, the choice of gas is “important since the rotational alignment time depends on the inertia of the molecule, and to maximize the enhancement we want this to coincide with the duration of our pulses generated by the fiber laser.”

Prospects of attosecond fiber lasers

The development of fiber laser technology makes the system adjustment simpler, promoting the operation with a wide variety of laser systems with various parameters. The research of attosecond science is regarded as very promising because such fiber lasers make it possible to construct images of the electrons and study the fast motion of electrons inside atoms.

Importance of low-noise signals

Low-noise signals play a crucial role in various applications, for instance, high-speed telecommunication and ultrafast data processing. Usually, huge and sensitive microwave oscillators emit these signals; however, these systems can not be applied outdoors. The promising solution is the application of high-quality pulsed laser systems based on micro-comb technology.

Advantages of micro-comb fiber lasers

This type of fiber lasers offers the high optical frequency and spectral purity of laser beam fields; they produce low-noise microwaves compactly and efficiently. These laser systems emit microwaves with limited frequency adjustment, which is why conventional resonator has to be huge and have difficulties in tunability.

Novel micro-comb laser technology

A team of scientists from Dublin presented a novel fiber laser technology for producing different low-noise microwaves with a single system. According to this technology, a microresonator frequency comb is installed into a compact laser system, whose “intensity  is modulated by an off-the-shelf microwave oscillator.”

Tunable microwave generation

It is possible to emit new laser beam microwaves with tuned frequencies by forcing the modulation frequency to tightly follow a subharmonic frequency of the microwave. These microwaves provide lower phase noise than fiber laser systems used previously for the same purposes.

Frequency division and spectral purity

This fiber laser technology has a frequency division that allows for delivering the frequency purity of an optical signal into the microwave domain. It is possible to deliver the spectral purity between various microwave signals. Although it is challenging to perform ideal laser beam microwave frequency division in a tunable way, the fast-modulated fiber laser allows for making it by employing cost cost-effective photodetector and a moderate control system.

Spectroscopic applications and system components

This laser system produces a secondary frequency comb with more densified spectral emissions, leading to numerous spectroscopic applications. Additionally, the main elements of the system, for example, the microresonator and the semiconductor laser system, are considered to be discrete and connected with lengthy optical fibers.

Integration and miniaturization

The team now continues working on integrating and advanced-packing the system. The opportunity to make the device smaller and its mass production leads to a revolution in the market for portable, low-noise microwave and frequency comb tools.

Introduction to the fiber laser scalpel

A team of researchers from Taiwan and Russia presented a new scalpel based on fiber laser technology. The fiber laser scalpel is twice as thin as conventional ones. Taking into account the fact that standard medical scalpels have different shapes for specific tasks, the new laser system provides numerous benefits.

Benefits of decreased thickness

The researchers have developed a scalpel based on a fiber laser system that allows for decreasing its thickness by half. The researchers claim that the created curvilinear shape opens numerous opportunities for fiber laser applications in medical fields.

Design and innovation in the laser scalpel

The team from Taiwan and Russia produces a laser beam “blade” applied in a medical scalpel with a given curved shape employing a photonic “hook”. There are laser beam scalpels only with an axisymmetric focus area, that is, their blade is cylindrical.

New blade shapes for medical applications

Another blade shape enables the researcher to open new applications of the laser system in medicine. This fiber laser scalpel is two times thinner than the cylindrical shape. Therefore, specific tasks require various shapes of standard surgical scalpels.

Operating principle of the fiber laser scalpel

It is possible to cut or remove tissue with a scalpel based on fiber laser technology. The operating principle is based on the laser beam with increased temperature in a limited range up to 400°С. Thus, the fiber laser system burns out the beam, while tiny blood vessels along the cut edges are sealed.

Advantages of the curved laser beam

The fiber laser scalpel provides incredible advantages; for example, the incisions made by it are pretty thin, and the radiation is not dangerous. The researchers have succeeded in bending the laser beam by the installation of an amplitude or phase mask at the end of the optical fiber.

Role of the optical mask

The mask in the fiber laser system is regarded as a small plate made of metal or dielectric material, for example, glass. The laser beam energy inside the optical fiber is redistributed by the mask, leading to a curved part of radiation localization at the end of the fiber (the so-called photonic hook).

Testing and results

The fiber laser system has already been tested and demonstrated that the curved blade has a length of up to 3mm. The thickness of the laser beam blade reaches 500 microns (slightly bigger than the diameter of a human hair). Test results make the fiber laser scalpel perfect for surgeries.

Expanding applications of fiber laser technology

Laser systems become an integral part of human life; fiber laser technology continues to develop, leading to the appearance of new applications and expanding the old ones. For instance, a team of scientists from Japan has presented novel linear nanomotors that can be moved in controlled directions by applying a laser beam.

Role in microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip systems

These fiber lasers used in nanomotors make it possible to develop new microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip systems with optically actuated pumps and valves or other devices based on fiber laser technology that can be previously challenging or even impossible to perform.

Challenges of nanoscale devices

Nanoscale devices greatly differ from the ones involving the contraptions that researchers have used to employed. For example, it is more challenging to produce and accurately control a nanomotor (the tiny motor that is smaller than a bacterium) based on the laser system than to drive a car.

Development of gold nanorod-based motors

The recent development of the Japanese team includes a fiber laser system used in linear motors made from gold nanorods that allow for moving in a controlled direction when subjected to a laser beam. The operating principle is similar to a sailboat that can be directed in any desired position.

Principles of nanomotor operation

Such nanomotors’ operation does not lead to following the direction of the laser beam. Their operation is based on the orientation, even when they are subjected to a laser beam emitting from another angle. Thus, the laser system moves due to the lateral optical force produced by the sideways scattering of the laser beam from the particles.

Advantages of the new fiber laser system

There is no need to direct or shape the laser beam with lenses, which was quite challenging previously. Compared to previous systems, the wavelength of light produced by the fiber laser does not influence or limit the size of new nanomotors.

Key role of plasmon resonance

The laser beam or the field gradient does not define the motion and does not restrain it; the direction is based on the orientation of the nanoparticles themselves. “The key to this fiber laser technology is the localized surface plasmon resonance – collective oscillations of free electrons – within periodic arrays of nanorods.” They emit a scattered laser beam in a particular direction.

Future applications of nanomotors

The team of scientists plans to apply this fiber laser system to develop a new platform for nano-sized devices with moving parts that follow predetermined paths while being directed by unfocused laser beams. Thus, they claim the cost and complexity of such systems can be significantly reduced while accuracy and robustness will increase.

The challenge of coherence in fiber lasers

According to a team of researchers from Australia, the coherence of laser systems can be significantly improved by overcoming limitations that have been considered to be fundamental for 60 years. Fiber lasers produce highly directional, monochromatic, coherent laser beam light.

Importance of coherence

The light is produced by the laser system as a narrow laser beam in a specific direction. The wavelength and phase of every photon are equal. The coherence of a laser beam, in turn, is regarded as “the number of photons that can be emitted in this manner, which is a property crucial in determining the performance of a fiber laser in precision tasks like quantum computing.”

Historical quantum limits

A quantum limit of laser beam coherence is not a new phenomenon, and it was discovered in the 1960s. There is a theory that the coherence of the fiber laser system is less than the square of the number of photons. The researchers suggest a way to apply laser beam energy to the system and how it is released to create the beam.

Role of quantum mechanics

Even though these suggestions are suitable for most standard laser systems, they are not obligatory when it comes to quantum mechanics. The ability of researchers to develop and control quantum systems has transformed the conception of what is practical. Numerous studies allow for a better understanding of quantum processes occurring in fiber lasers.

Novel approach to overcome coherence limits

The team of researchers from Australia has applied numerical simulations to show that it is possible to overcome the limitations of fiber laser systems. The fiber laser technology has already been tested and demonstrated that the laser beam coherence is less than the fourth power of the number of photons.

Higher photon storage and quantum models

When the stored number of photons in the fiber laser is large, as is generally the case, the upper limit is much higher than before. Also, the researchers have developed a quantum mechanical model for a fiber laser system that could reach this upper limit for coherence in theory.

Future applications of quantum-limited fiber lasers

Much time is required to create a super laser system. However, this fiber laser technology proves that the production of a quantum-limited fiber laser is possible by employing the superconducting technique. This kind of technology is also applied in the modern best quantum computers.
The developed fiber laser may have applications in that field. Thus, new fiber laser systems allow for expanding new applications and promoting new research into more energy-efficient laser systems.