lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that

Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that …Brian J. Orr (CLA, Macquarie University)

Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that …Brian J. Orr– Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109

The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment

Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that …Brian J. Orr– Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109

The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment Things that we do well: – Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of small molecules – Time-resolved IR-UV & Raman-UV double resonance – Tunable narrowband optical parametric oscillators – Rapidly swept cavity ringdown spectroscopy

Centre for Lasers & Applications

The CLA was established as an ARC Special Research Centre in 1988

We specialise in developing high-power / high-performance lasers and their applications to science, industry, medicine & the community

Our work is founded on basic physics, optics, chemistry, biology, …

CLA an 'umbrella' covering MQU's laser/optoelectronics R&D

All-solid-state yellow laser

for dermatology treatments

Strontium vapour laser

Development of high-brightness visible lasers

Available laser systems … Pulsed lasers

Excimer (193, 248, … nm) UV Cu(g) lasers (255, 271, 289 nm) Visible Cu(g) lasers (510, 578 nm) Nd:YAG (1064, 532, 355, 266 nm) CO2 lasers (10.6 mm) Tunable dye lasers Nonlinear-optical wavelength conversion (SHG, OPO, SRS, …)

Ultrafast lasers <150 fs Hurricane (266, 400, 800

nm) <100 fs tunable MaiTai (780-820

nm)

Continuous-wave (cw) lasers

CO2 lasers (10.6 mm) Tunable diode lasers

CLA spin-offs … Laser Micromachining Solutions

Based on CLA expertise in high- power lasers and micromachining A ‘shopfront’ for local industry Success stories include: – Olympic torch orifices (’00, ’04) – Rotary shaft micro-encoders

CUDOS – ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems

photonic crystals lab-on-a-chip

Initiatives in biophotonics, etc.

Micromachining for biotech …

Laser-trepanned hole: no recast; good thermal management

Accurate laser-machined cleaving of glass micropipette tips

Custom membranes for microbiology

UV-laser-machining of tiny holes in packaging to calibrate leak detectors

LIF-detected molecular processes …

Time-resolved IR-UV (and

Raman-UV) double resonance spectroscopy (LIF-detected)

Small molecules (e.g., C2H2,

D2CO, …) unusual processes with high- energy vibration & rotation UV-LIF probe maps excited electronic states onto ground state If small molecules won’t behave as expected, why should big, (bio)molecules behave?

New microscopy prototypes?

IR-UV DR spectroscopy of C2H2 (g) …

High-performance tunable laser sources & advanced spectroscopic sensing methods … Nonlinear-optics narrowband tunable optical parametric

oscillators (OPOs)

Optical cavity + cw

tunable diode lasers cavity ringdown for high-sensitivity

gas detection

Cavity ringdown spectroscopy … Cw tunable diode lasers sensitive gas det’n

Rapid cavity sweep

multi-, multi-species

Rapid frequency sweep wide-range molecular ‘fingerprint’ spectra

Solution-phase analogues (e.g., via evanescent waves) complementary to LIF?

Swept-frequency cavity ringdown …

Rapid frequency sweep wide- range molecular ‘fingerprints’

Rapid-scan CRD spectrum of CO2 (g) in 2 s

Swept-frequency incident radiation

Radiation at discrete cavity

resonance frequency

HR HR

Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that …Brian J. Orr– Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109

The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment Things that we do well: – Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of small molecules – Time-resolved IR-UV & Raman-UV double resonance – Tunable narrowband optical parametric oscillators – Rapidly swept cavity ringdown spectroscopy