Second-modelocking for a universal material-processing laser

Introduction

Lasers are ubiquitously used to cut, drill, mark, texture, and 3D print materials. Material-processing lasers remain divided into CW, nanosecond, and ultrafast-pulsed, each excelling and falling short differently.

Types of Lasers

Continuous Wave (CW) Lasers

• Reach the highest powers
• Cost the least
• Are far more common
• Cause heat damage
• Their utility is material-specific

Ultrafast Lasers

• Achieve supreme precision on any material
• Remain niche as they are inefficient and expensive

Nanosecond Lasers

• Fall in between CW and ultrafast lasers

Proposal for a Universal Laser

We propose to overcome this categorization by inventing a universal laser that can process any material, from metals to living tissue. This laser will:

1. Exceed the efficiency limit of equilibrium thermodynamics
2. Approach the quantum mechanical limit
3. Surpass the speed of industrial CW lasers

It will do so by taking our invention of ablation-cooled laser-material removal (Nature 2016) to uncharted territory where electrons and atoms will be kept perpetually far from mutual equilibrium even between successive pulses.

Versatility of the Laser

The same laser will perform 3D printing or tissue welding by switching to quasi-CW operation. To this end, we need the unprecedented combination of:

• 30-fs pulses at 1-kW average power
• On-the-fly tunable repetition rates of 0.1-1 THz

The latter implies an impossibly short laser cavity.

Challenges and Innovations

The alternative is to support multiple pulses in the same cavity, but this has long suffered from poor performance due to fundamental reasons. Regular modelocking generates ultrashort pulses by locking cavity modes via nonlinear feedback, but it has no mechanism to mutually lock multiple pulses.

Introduction of Nonlinear Time Filter

We fill this conceptual gap by introducing a nonlinear time filter. This innovation underlies the new laser concept of second modelocking, which will create thousands of ultrafast pulses in perfect periodic arrangement to reach extreme repetition rates.

Potential Applications

This disruptive potential extends beyond material processing and laser surgery to include:

• Microwave generation
• THz generation
• Beyond-5G communications
• Laser ranging