Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Today's industrial and scientific lasers operate at the physical limits of optical materials to reach extreme performances like high energies or short pulse durations. Usually, amplification takes place in laser crystals and is limited by the material damage threshold and also the spectral bandwidth a crystal can accept. We propose to circumvent these fundamental material limitations by splitting the pulse energy and spectrum into small packages that can be handled by individual crystals to push laser technology to the next level. Commercial state of the art laser systems deliver ultrashort pulses consisting of many cycles of the electromagnetic field underneath the overall envelope. Two patents have been launched by INRS-EMT researchers to shorten this duration down to one optical cycle (and even below). The goal of this Strategic project is to develop those corresponding devices to establish a world class beamline at the Advanced Laser Light Source, delivering high energy sub-cycle pulses. Because the generation of these sub-cycle pulses requires their complete temporal characterization, we also propose a suitable technology for this. These results will redefine the state of the art in ultrafast laser technology, placing Canada in a position of international leadership. Associated with such short pulses is an octave exceeding spectral bandwidth with many other applications by itself and we will realize these new type of lasers in the mid-infrared (3 to 5 microns); a window of the electromagnetic spectra of increasing significance for defence technology as a counter measure to protect airplanes from missiles. Therefore, Defence Research and Development Canada is a partner in this Strategic project. Our new laser technologies will be brought to commercial devices by a future spin-off company based at INRS-EMT. Three other Canadian companies are actively involved in this plan: Passat Ltd. and Genia Photonics are both manufacturing picosecond lasers that will be implemented in the new laser technologies, and Axis Photonique is specialized in manufacturing devices for light pulse characterization and will expand its portfolio to one which can measure time-dependent electromagnetic fields.