Peter Moulton on the Ti:Sapphire laser

Summary

Peter Moulton, Vice President and CTO of Q Peak Inc., discusses the evolution of solid-state lasers, focusing on the development of titanium sapphire lasers. He recounts his early work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory on tunable solid-state lasers and the breakthrough with titanium-doped sapphire in 1982. The technology's commercialization in the late 1980s revolutionized the scientific laser community, replacing dye lasers and enabling ultrafast laser applications in biology and chemistry. Moulton also touches on the Nobel Prize-winning chirped pulse amplification and its role in creating high-energy, ultra-short pulse lasers, which have significant scientific and commercial impacts.

Takeaways

• 🎓 Peter Moulton is the VP and CTO of Q Peak Incorporated, a small R&D organization focused on laser research and development.
• 🏢 Q Peak is part of Physical Sciences Incorporated, a larger company with a national presence, specializing in advanced solid-state lasers and non-linear optical systems.
• 🔬 Moulton's career began at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 1970, where he worked on tunable solid-state lasers, including an unsuccessful thesis on semiconductor lasers.
• 💡 His research led to the discovery of titanium-doped sapphire as a viable material for lasers, which had a broad gain line and different properties from the initial ruby lasers.
• 🌟 In 1982, Moulton successfully demonstrated the laser operation of titanium sapphire, which later became a commercial product replacing dye lasers in the scientific community.
• 🏥 The titanium sapphire laser found applications in various fields, including testing erbium fiber amplifiers and basic science research.
• 🔍 The laser's ability to generate ultra-short pulses was a significant breakthrough, enabling the study of fast molecular dynamics and earning a Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 🌈 Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) technology, developed by Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland, allowed for the amplification of these short pulses to high energies without damaging the laser system.
• 🚀 The combination of titanium sapphire and CPA technology led to the creation of lasers capable of producing terawatt to petawatt peak powers in compact systems.
• 💸 The titanium sapphire laser has had a substantial economic impact, with an estimated product sales of around $600 million, and has been crucial for the scientific laser industry.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Q Peak Incorporated?

Q Peak Incorporated focuses on laser research and development, specifically on advanced solid-state lasers, non-linear optical systems, and product development.

How long has Q Peak Incorporated been in operation?

Q Peak Incorporated has been in operation for 25 years, starting as part of the research division of Schwartz Electro-Optics in 1985.

What was Peter Moulton's role at MIT Lincoln Laboratory?

Peter Moulton worked on his thesis and developed tunable solid-state lasers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory from the early 1970s until he left to start his company in 1985.

What was the subject of Peter Moulton's thesis at MIT?

Peter Moulton's thesis was an attempt to create a tunable solid-state laser in a semiconductor.

What was the breakthrough material that Peter Moulton discovered for laser development?

Peter Moulton discovered that titanium doped sapphire (Ti:Al2O3) was an effective material for laser development, particularly in the 1.8 to 2 micron region.

What was significant about the titanium dopant in sapphire?

The titanium dopant in sapphire was significant because it had a very broad gain line, making it one of the broadest lines of any known laser material, especially in solid-state materials.

When and where was the successful demonstration of the titanium sapphire laser first announced?

The successful demonstration of the titanium sapphire laser was first announced at the Quantum Electronics Conference in Munich in 1982.

How did the titanium sapphire laser impact the scientific community?

The titanium sapphire laser replaced the dye laser as the mainstay of the scientific tunable laser community, starting around 1988 and 89, and rapidly became accepted for various scientific applications.

What was the significance of the mode-locking discovery in titanium sapphire lasers?

The mode-locking discovery allowed titanium sapphire lasers to generate extremely short pulses, approaching the fundamental limit of the material, which was crucial for studying fast events in biology and chemistry.

What is Chirped Pulse Amplification and how does it relate to titanium sapphire lasers?

Chirped Pulse Amplification is a technique that allows for the stretching of very short pulses to high energies without damaging the laser system's optics. When combined with titanium sapphire lasers, it enabled the generation of terawatt to petawatt peak power pulses in compact systems.

What is the economic impact of the titanium sapphire laser according to Peter Moulton?

The titanium sapphire laser has had a substantial economic impact, with accumulated product sales estimated around 0.6 billion dollars, sustaining the scientific laser industry for several years.

Outlines

00:00

🔬 Innovations in Laser Technology

Peter Moulton, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Q Peak Incorporated, discusses the evolution of laser technology over the past 50 years. He started his career at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 1970, focusing on tunable solid-state lasers. His initial research on semiconductor lasers was unsuccessful, but he later found success with transition metal-doped crystals, particularly titanium-doped sapphire. This material, with its broad gain line, revolutionized the field by enabling the development of ultrafast lasers. Moulton's work led to the commercialization of titanium sapphire lasers, which replaced dye lasers and became essential tools in scientific research and various applications, including testing erbium fiber amplifiers and studying molecular dynamics. The paragraph also touches on the discovery of mode-locking techniques that allowed for the generation of extremely short pulses, which earned a Nobel Prize in Physics.

05:02

🌟 The Impact of Chirped Pulse Amplification

The second paragraph delves into the development of chirped pulse amplification technology by Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland at the University of Rochester. This innovation allowed for the amplification of very short pulses to high energies without damaging the optical components, by stretching the pulses spectrally. When combined with the titanium sapphire laser, it enabled the creation of lasers capable of producing terawatt to petawatt peak powers in compact systems. These high-power pulses are used for fundamental physics research and the generation of high harmonics, with the ultimate goal of developing practical X-ray sources. The paragraph highlights the significant scientific and commercial success of the titanium sapphire laser, which has had a substantial economic impact, with an estimated product sales value of around 0.6 billion dollars. It also mentions the decision by MIT not to patent the technology, which allowed for its widespread adoption and development by multiple companies, benefiting the scientific community as a whole.

Keywords

💡Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. In the context of the video, lasers are central to the discussion of technological advancements, with a focus on solid-state lasers and their applications in research and development.

💡Solid State Lasers

Solid state lasers are a type of laser that uses a solid gain medium, often a crystal or a glass doped with a lasing ion, to produce laser light. The video discusses the development of advanced solid state lasers, highlighting their significance in the field of laser technology and their commercial applications.

💡Non-linear Optical Systems

Non-linear optical systems involve the interaction of light with matter in a way that the response of the system is not directly proportional to the intensity of the light. The video mentions the development of these systems, indicating their role in advancing laser technology and enabling new applications.

💡Tunable Lasers

Tunable lasers are lasers whose output wavelength can be adjusted to produce different frequencies of light. The script discusses the development of tunable solid-state lasers, emphasizing the importance of being able to adjust the laser's wavelength for various scientific and commercial uses.

💡Transition Metal Doped Crystals

These are crystals doped with transition metals, such as nickel and cobalt, to enhance their optical properties for laser applications. The video describes early work on these materials, noting their need for cryogenic temperatures and other drawbacks, which led to further research.

💡Titanium Doped Sapphire

Titanium doped sapphire is a laser medium where sapphire (aluminum oxide) is doped with titanium. The video details the discovery and development of this material, which became a significant breakthrough due to its broad gain line and its role in the advancement of tunable lasers.

💡Mode Locking

Mode locking is a technique used to generate ultra-short pulses from a laser. The script mentions the discovery that titanium sapphire lasers could be mode locked to produce extremely short pulses, which was a significant advancement in the field of ultrafast laser technology.

💡Chirped Pulse Amplification

Chirped pulse amplification is a method of amplifying short pulses of light without causing damage to the optical components due to high peak power. The video discusses the development of this technology, which, combined with titanium sapphire lasers, enabled the creation of high-energy, ultra-short pulse lasers.

💡Femtosecond Pulses

Femtosecond pulses are extremely short bursts of light, lasting about one femtosecond (10^-15 seconds). The video highlights the ability of titanium sapphire lasers to generate femtosecond pulses, which have been crucial for studying fast processes in physics, chemistry, and biology.

💡Ultrafast Lasers

Ultrafast lasers are lasers capable of producing pulses in the picosecond or femtosecond timescale. The script describes the development of ultrafast lasers using titanium sapphire, which have been instrumental in observing and analyzing extremely rapid phenomena in science.

💡Economic Impact

The economic impact refers to the financial effect that a particular technology or industry has on the economy. The video discusses the substantial economic impact of the titanium sapphire laser, indicating its significant contribution to the scientific laser industry and the broader economy.

Highlights

Spie presents a series honoring 50 years of laser achievements.

Peter Moulton, Vice President and CTO of Q Peak, discusses his company's focus on solid-state lasers and non-linear optical systems.

Q Peak is part of Physical Sciences Incorporated, a larger company with a nationwide presence.

Moulton's career began at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 1970, working on tunable solid-state lasers.

His initial thesis on tunable solid-state lasers in semiconductors was unsuccessful.

Research led to the discovery of titanium-doped sapphire as a viable laser material.

Titanium-doped sapphire has the broadest gain line of any known laser material.

Moulton's work on titanium sapphire led to a breakthrough in laser technology in 1982.

The titanium sapphire laser replaced dye lasers as the scientific community's mainstay for tunable lasers.

The laser's development was rapid, with commercial quantities available by 1988-89.

Initial applications included testing erbium fiber amplifiers and basic science research.

Researchers at the University of St. Andrews discovered mode-locking of the titanium sapphire laser, enabling ultra-short pulse generation.

The technology advanced to generate 10 femtosecond pulses, making ultra-fast lasers more accessible.

Short pulses were used to study molecular dynamics and interactions, leading to a Nobel Prize in Physics.

Chirped pulse amplification was developed to amplify short pulses to high energies without damaging optics.

The combination of chirped pulse amplification and titanium sapphire material enabled the creation of high peak power lasers.

These high peak power lasers are used to study fundamental physics and generate high harmonics into the ultraviolet.

The titanium sapphire laser has had a significant scientific and commercial impact, with over $600 million in product sales.

MIT decided not to patent the technology, which allowed for broad development and adoption by the community.

Transcripts

spie presents the advancing the laser

series honoring

50 years of laser achievements

i'm peter moulton i'm currently the vice

president and chief technology officer

of

q peak incorporated it's a small r d

organization doing laser research and

development in bedford massachusetts

we're part of a larger company physical

sciences incorporated based in andover

with

sites all over the country and our main

business is the development of advanced

solid state lasers non-linear optical

systems

and development of products so

it's an organization i started as part

of

the research division of schwartz

electro optics in 1985

so this is our 25th year of operation

and been very exciting taking technology

from 1985 through 2010 and

seeing where it's developed

before that i was at mit lincoln

laboratory

from my days as a graduate student at

mit

starting about 1970 until i left to

start

start the company in about 1985

during the period at mit lincoln

laboratory i worked

on my thesis which was an attempt to try

to make a tunable solid state laser in a

semiconductor

and then after that i worked for about

10 years developing

other types of tunable solid-state

lasers

my thesis didn't work but subsequently i

started working on some other materials

some transition metal doped

crystals nickel and cobalt in the

in the 1.8 to 2 micron region

they all succeeded reasonably well but

they needed cryogenic temperatures for

cooling

and they had other drawbacks one of the

things that i looked at then was to try

to see if there were some other

materials that could work

more effectively and doing going back to

sort of fundamental physics i looked at

the

material or the dopant eye and titanium

and discovered that it worked very

nicely in the crystal hose sapphire

so it was an intriguing material because

the first laser was in fact

ruby which is chromium doped sapphire

al2o3 and the titanium

dopant had totally different properties

from ruby instead of being a narrow line

it was a very broad line in fact

it's about the broadest gain line of any

laser material that's that's known any

certainly any solid state material

and so as a in a chain of about 10 years

of partial successes some failures and

and so forth i finally landed in 1982

on on thai sapphire and succeeded in

demonstrating laser operation getting

an old crystal that had been kicking

around on the campus at mit from our

ceramicist

developed that announced that at the

quantum electronics conference in munich

in 1982 and subsequently worked on

developing that

i left lincoln laboratory in 85 as i

mentioned to start

the company and and my group continued

to work on titanium sapphire laser

development

in the meantime the material got to the

point where it became a commercial

quantity it was it essentially stepped

in and replaced the

the dye laser which had been the

mainstay of the scientific tunable laser

community

and that started about 1988 and 89 and

that became very rapidly accepted we

our my company made some products

spectrophysics coherent did and other

companies and sold a lot of systems they

were

initially used as cw sources

to uh to test things like erbium fiber

amplifiers as well as do basic science

uh subsequent to that in experimental

work

on the thai sapphire laser a group in

scotland the university of san andreas

discovered under certain conditions the

laser could be mode locked

and surprisingly using a technique that

it was later discovered to be

care lens mode locking generate really

short pulses in fact pulses that

approach the fundamental limit of the

material

and over about a 10-year period that

technology was developed to the point

where the ti sapphire was

was generating 10 femtosecond pulses or

so extremely short

and it was a practical source the the

earlier technology had been liquid dye

lasers are very hard to use the ti

sapphire

enabled relatively easily

fabricated and operated ultra fast

lasers and made them available to a wide

variety of users in the

biological and chemical areas

subsequently many people use those short

pulses to characterize

and freeze uh very fast events like

molecular

dynamics uh in one of the nobel prizes

in physics

i might say well was really given

for the work that he did using ultra

fast lasers in thai sapphire in

particular i think

to to understand how molecules move and

how they interact

a side effort uh that later became a

major effort in that

evolution of the time sapphire

technology was

um at the same time that the thai

sapphire

was was being developed to generate

short pulses gerard maru

and his co-workers at rochester came up

with the chirp pulse amplification

technology

which allowed you to take very short

pulses and amplify

them to very high energies the problem

with that

in principle was if you took the short

pulse as it came out of the laser and

amplified it up

the pulse itself would have so much peak

power that would eventually damage all

the optics in the system

and what gerard and donna strickland was

his co-worker pointed

out is if you take the pulse and stretch

it out by using uh the spectral

properties of the material from tens to

hundreds of femtoseconds to

nearly a nanosecond now you can

propagate the pulse through a high

amplifier

high energy amplifier chain and go to

very high energies and that sure pulse

amplification technique

combined with the thai sapphire material

became the basis for making

lasers that could generate terawatts and

then petawatts and then extra watts of

peak power

in a very small and compact system and

so that whole area has developed into a

major

physics development and those high peak

power pulses are used to

again study some very fundamental

physics as well as

generate extremely high harmonics up

into the ultraviolet

the holy grail being the development of

x-ray sources that can be used for

biological and eventually hopefully

practical applications in x-ray analysis

much better than an x-ray source

so the thai sapphire laser is has been a

great success

i hadn't really thought it was going to

be that way we were doing it for other

reasons but

it's become a very substantial success

from a scientific standpoint and nobel

prizes and being able to do great

physics

from a commercial standpoint my

understanding is

it's sustained the scientific laser

industry for a number of years

i think the last time i checked the

accumulated product sales for the thai

sapphire laser around 0.6 billion

dollars

so it's had a substantial economic

impact as well

mit didn't think it was worth patenting

when i when i went to them they had run

out of funds and just

weren't interested so i never benefited

from that sadly but

in some sense the fact that the laser

was made free to the community

probably helped it rather than say if it

had been licensed to one company it may

not have developed the way it did

it was broadly developed by a lot of

companies competing and

that helped build the technology so it

was good for the community