Ultrafast lasers for materials processing

Research funding

2023-08-11

(Press-News.org) Lasers are an essential tool for materials processing. They can be used to cut, weld and remove material. A special kind of lasers known as femtosecond lasers can be used to create high-precision microstructures, such as those needed for smartphone displays and automotive technology. Professor Clara Saraceno from Ruhr University Bochum aims to introduce a cheaper and more efficient laser technology to the market. To this end, she is receiving a proof-of-concept grant amounting to 150,000 euros from the European Research Council (ERC). The project titled “Ultrafast 2.1 µm Holmium Lasers for GHz ablation” (Giga2u) will run for 18 months.

Faster and more efficient

Standard femtosecond lasers emit light pulses with wavelengths of one micrometer and a duration in the hundreds of femtosecond range; this is the equivalent of a quadrillionth of a second. The energy per pulse is high, and the systems are expensive. “New lasers that are faster and more efficient, while generating lower costs, could be a key technology for the market,” points out Clara Saraceno, head of the Photonics and Ultrafast Laser Science group.

As part of her ERC Starting Grant “TerAqua”, Clara Saraceno is currently developing femtosecond lasers that operate at wavelengths of 2.1 microns and with repetition frequencies in the GHz regime. They require less energy and are potentially more reliable than systems currently deployed in industry. They also promise lower costs and faster production speeds. So far, however, the systems have only been used for research applications, such as spectroscopy.

Testing market readiness

The Giga2u proof-of-concept grant is intended to demonstrate the potential of the technology for industrial applications. Such a system would be of interest primarily for processing glass and polymers, but also for ablating aqueous tissues. The latter could be useful for future directions in laser surgery application. The researchers headed by Clara Saraceno hope to develop a compact and stable laser prototype and explore the technology’s market potential. In the process, the group also intends to lay the groundwork for establishing a start-up.

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Research raises hopes for new treatment of fusion-driven cancer

2023-08-11

A new study presents a promising treatment method for so-called fusion-driven cancers, which are currently often difficult to cure. These fusion-driven cancers are caused by an error in cell division that creates a fusion of different genes. This fusion causes the cancer and drives the uncontrolled cell growth. Using the so-called molecular scissors CRISPR/Cas9, researchers from Aarhus University have developed a gene therapy that can stop cell division in a subtype of the aggressive blood cancer acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The study has just been published in the scientific journal Leukemia. Even though the ...

Direct evidence for modified gravity at low acceleration from Gaia observations of wide binary stars

2023-08-11

A new study reports conclusive evidence for the breakdown of standard gravity in the low acceleration limit from a verifiable analysis of the orbital motions of long-period, widely separated, binary stars, usually referred to as wide binaries in astronomy and astrophysics. The study carried out by Kyu-Hyun Chae, professor of physics and astronomy at Sejong University in Seoul, used up to 26,500 wide binaries within 650 light years (LY) observed by European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope. Kareem El-Badry, then at Harvard and now a faculty at ...

Social media use interventions alleviate symptoms of depression

2023-08-11

Receiving therapy for problematic social media use can be effective in improving the mental wellbeing of people with depression, finds a new study by UCL researchers. The research, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, found that social media use interventions could help adults for whom social media use has become problematic or interferes with their mental health. Problematic use is when a person’s pre-occupation with social media results in a distraction from their primary tasks and the neglect of responsibilities in other aspects of their life. Previous research* has suggested that social media use can become problematic ...

Hidden moles in hidden holes

2023-08-11

Scientists have identified two types of mole which they believe have been living undiscovered in the mountains of eastern Turkey for as many as 3 million years. The new moles – named Talpa hakkariensis and Talpa davidiana tatvanensis – belong to a familiar group of subterranean, invertebrate-eating mammals found across Europe and Western Asia. While only one species, Talpa europaea, is found in Britain, further east there are a number of different moles, many of which have very small geographical ranges. The researchers – using cutting edge DNA technology – ...

Soil microbiome, Earth’s ‘living skin’ under threat from climate change

2023-08-11

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Using a novel method to detect microbial activity in biological soil crusts, or biocrusts, after they are wetted, a Penn State-led research team in a new study uncovered clues that will lead to a better understanding of the role microbes play in forming a living skin over many semi-arid ecosystems around the world. The tiny organisms — and the microbiomes they create — are threatened by climate change. The researchers published their findings in Frontiers of Microbiology. “Biocrusts ...

Zentropy and the art of creating new ferroelectric materials

2023-08-11

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Systems in the Universe trend toward disorder, with only applied energy keeping the chaos at bay. The concept is called entropy, and examples can be found everywhere: ice melting, campfire burning, water boiling. Zentropy theory, however, adds another level to the mix. A team led by Zi-Kui Liu, the Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State, developed the theory. The “Z” in zentropy stands for the German word Zustandssumm, meaning ‘‘sum over states” of entropy. Alternatively, Liu said, zentropy may be considered as a play on the term “zen” ...

Ribbons of graphene push the material’s potential

2023-08-11

Think you know everything about a material? Try giving it a twist—literally. That’s the main idea of an emerging field in condensed matter physics called “twistronics,” which has researchers drastically changing the properties of 2D materials, like graphene, with subtle changes—as small as going from a 1.1° to 1.2°—in the angle between stacked layers. Twisted layers of graphene, for example, have been shown to behave in ways that single sheets have not, including acting like magnets, like electrical superconductors, or like a superconductor’s opposite, insulators, all due to small changes in the twist angle between sheets. In theory, you ...

New recycling process could find markets for ‘junk’ plastic waste

2023-08-11

MADISON – Although many Americans dutifully deposit their plastic trash into the appropriate bins each week, many of those materials, including flexible films, multilayer materials and a lot of colored plastics, are not recyclable using conventional mechanical recycling methods. In the end, only about 9 percent of plastic in the United States is ever reused, often in low-value products. With a new technique, however, University of Wisconsin–Madison chemical engineers are turning low-value waste plastic into high-value ...

The Israeli Override Clause: a threat to the health in all policies approach

2023-08-11

On July 24, 2023, Israel's Parliament sanctioned a substantial amendment to the Basic Law, prompting apprehensions regarding power equilibrium and its potential influence on public well-being. In response, a coalition of prominent Israeli and global public health experts has united to dissect the profound ramifications of this revision in an article titled “Israel's Judicial Overhaul: A Threat to the Health in All Policies Approach” featured in The Lancet. The amendment, restricts ...

Indicator of PFAS found in some — but not all — period products

2023-08-11

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10, 2023 — Period products come in a variety of styles — liners, pads, tampons, cups and underwear — to help people feel comfortable during a menstrual bleed. But their labels don’t usually list the ingredients, so consumers don’t know what’s in their product of choice. Now, researchers have analyzed over 100 period products for fluorinated compounds, an indicator of potentially harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Their results show that while PFAS are absent from many products, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

iRECODE: A new computational method that brings clarity to single-cell analysis

New NUS-MOH study: Singapore’s healthcare sector carbon emissions 18% lower than expected, a milestone in the city-state’s net zero journey

Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5