KMLabs Wyvern-HE wins CLEO/LFW Innovation Awards (VIDEO)
San Jose, CA--Kapteyn-Murnane Laboratories (KMLabs; Boulder, CO) is the 2013 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Awards winner for its Wyvern-HE Ti:sapphire amplifier (see http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2013/04/2013-CLEO-LFW-Innovation-Awards-KMLabs.html). Laser Focus World senior editor Gail Overton interviewed KMLabs founder and CEO Henry Kapteyn and lead scientist Xiaoshi Zhang at CLEO: 2013 in San Jose, CA to get a better idea of why this innovative product took top honors:
The KMLabs Wyvern-HE is a high-energy, single-stage, single-pump Ti:sapphire ultrafast amplifier delivering performance (9 mJ at 1 kHz with computer-controlled repetition rate) that has historically only been possible with much larger and more expensive multi-stage designs. Motivation for the product was provided by JILA researchers who needed high-energy pulses with excellent beam quality to pump an optical parametric amplifier (OPA). Multi-millijoule OPA pulses in the 1.3 to 2 μm range could then be used to generate ultrafast, coherent, high harmonic x-rays for a host of applications in nano and molecular science. Additional applications include fundamental materials/surface science, attosecond science, pump-probe studies in chemistry/physics, and imaging/spectroscopy applications.
The Wyvern-HE design uses proprietary cryogenic cooling and regenerative amplification beyond today's commercial norms to achieve a pulse energy specification of more than 9 mJ (compared to competitive designs with just 5 mJ) with less than 45 fs pulse duration at a 1 kHz repetition rate, again using a single, compact regenerative amplification stage in a package that is 50% smaller and 40% less expensive than current multi-stage ultrafast amplifier systems performing at the same level. The peak power of the pulses can reach as high as 0.2 TW, a new record peak power for a single-stage amplifier.
SOURCE: Laser Focus World and CLEO: 2013; http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-49/issue-06/features/cleo-laser-focus-world-2013-innovation-awards.html