Thin disk laser wins EC 7th Framework funding of nearly $12.4M

Nov. 6, 2013

Stuttgart, Germany--The European Commission is funding the development of ultrafast thin disk lasers with high average powers during the next three years at a level of nearly $12.4 million dollars.

Gail Overton

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Stuttgart, Germany--The European Commission is funding the development of ultrafast thin disk lasers with high average powers during the next three years. The strategic and scientific efforts of the Institut für Strahlwerkzeuge (IFSW) at the University of Stuttgart towards next-generation ultrafast lasers has now culminated in two major STREP projects supported by the 7th Framework Program for Research of the EC.

Both projects aim at thin disk lasers with several hundred watts of average power, one with sub-100 fs pulses based on Ti:Sapphire disks with double-sided cooling and the other with a combination of a single crystal fiber as first amplifier stage and an Yb:YAG thin disk multipass amplifier as power booster for ps pulses with cylindrical polarizations.

Both projects are directed by the IFSW's Laser Development and Optics department, headed by M. Abdou Ahmed, in cooperation with renowned partners: Thales Optronique SA (France), Element Six Ltd. (UK), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS (France), Oxford Lasers Ltd. (UK), and M-Squared Lasers Ltd. (UK) for the Ti:Sapphire thin disk laser project (coordination A. Voß, IFSW, Uniersity of Stuttgart, Germany) and Time-Bandwidth Products AG (Switzerland), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS (France), Fibercryst SAS (France), Next Scan Technology B.V. (The Netherlands), GFH GmbH (Germany), Schweißtechnische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt SLV Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), and Class 4 Laser Professionals AG (Switzerland) for the project on the cylindrically polarized ultrafast thin disk lasers (coordinated by M. Abdou Ahmed, IFSW, University of Stuttgart, Germany).

The two projects together have a volume of nearly $12.4 million dollars and receive a grant of just more than $8.6 million dollars from the EC of which just under $2.6 million dollars are spent for the research at the IFSW (University of Stuttgart). The consortia acknowledge the excellent support from Kite Innovation Ltd. (UK) for the preparation of the proposals.

SOURCE: University of Stuttgart; http://www.ifsw.uni-stuttgart.de/artikel/art13_05.html?__locale=en

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.