San Jose, CA--In this video from the 2012 CLEO show floor, BioPhotonic Solutions (East Lansing, MI) explains femtoAdaptiv—a hassle-free femtosecond laser and winner of the 2012 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Award.
The femtoAdaptiv is the first ultrafast laser system capable of adaptive pulse self-compression that delivers ultrashort (sub-10 fs) pulses at the focal plane of a microscope objective. Developed in close partnership with VENTEON Laser Technologies GmbH (Garbsen, Germany), the femtoAdaptiv synergistically combines an ultra-broadband laser oscillator with MIIPS automated pulse compression technology.
Despite the fact that lasers with shorter pulses create brighter images and cause less thermal damage in multiphoton microscopy applications, laser companies still often compromise the shortest-delivered (approximately 100 fs) pulse duration for the simplicity of linear-chirp-only compensation—until now: The femtoAdaptiv is the first ultrafast laser capable of adaptive pulse self-compression by automatically pre-compensating high-order dispersion using adaptive optics. It can control the output center wavelength (from 650-1050 nm) and pulse duration (from 5-500 fs) in a matter of milliseconds, without the moving parts—and associated maintenance requirements--of currently available tunable lasers.
The femtoAdaptiv seamlessly couples to a computer controller that automatically pre-chirps the output to deliver transform-limited pulses at the microscope imaging plane. When used for multiphoton imaging, operators can expect order-of-magnitude shorter laser pulses, and therefore brighter images. In addition, users can implement the latest imaging techniques such as single-beam CARS and SRS micro-spectroscopy without requiring a second laser.
The 2012 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Awards program is designed to honor the most timely, groundbreaking products in the field of photonics and laser science. The awards are sponsored by Laser Focus World and the Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics (CLEO).
Each year, Innovation Award entrants are challenged to show how their application, service, or product (launched between September 2010 and March 2012 for the 2012 awards) met several key criteria, including significant impact to the photonics industry, overall excellent functionality and long life expectancy, secure patent position, and above all, an exceptional level of innovation.
SOURCE: Laser Focus World; www.laserfocusworld.com
