Thin-film lasers with their excellent beam quality and high optical-to-optical conversion efficiency have been increasingly widely used in fields such as industrial manufacturing and basic scientific research. Especially, the thin section ultrafast laser technology is proved to be the best solution to realize large pulse energy, ultra-short pulse width and high average power, which is also known as the "crown jewel" of the laser industry, and is of great significance for high-end manufacturing, extreme ultraviolet light generation and attosecond science.
For a long time, Germany's Trafotek exclusively leads the research and productization of thin-film lasers, and has achieved great commercial success. In the past 4 years, under the support of the National Key R&D Program "New Display and Strategic Electronic Materials" led by Prof. Ruan Shuangchen of Shenzhen University of Technology, the project team has been working together with the Shanghai Laser Plasma Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, Jiangsu Normal University, Daqi Laser, Institute of Semiconductor Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiangsu Third Generation Semiconductor Research Institute and other units to carry out technical research and production of thin-film lasers. Third-generation Semiconductor Research Institute and other units to carry out technical research, overcome the precision processing of thin-film crystals, crystal heat sink system design and packaging, 48-stroke pumping system, high stability regenerative amplification resonance cavity and multi-channel amplification and other key core technologies, the first in China to achieve a diameter of > 20mm Yb: YAG thin-film crystal packaging, the development of kilowatt-class 48-stroke pumping system.
In February 2024, the group realized a major breakthrough of kilowatt-class ultrafast thin-flake lasers in China: pulse output maximum average power of 1.075kW, pulse width of 7ps, repetition frequency of 500-800kHz adjustable, maximum pulse energy of 2.1mJ, beam quality of M2<1.5, spot ellipticity of 0.96, for the China's attosecond light source, extreme UV lithography, new energy vehicles, 3C electronics and chip processing, aerospace and other high-end manufacturing industries, to provide advanced laser light source.
