Frequency Comb Exo-Planet Laser Finder Cost Redcuction

[Mandy D]

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have developed a device powered by a green laser, similar to laser pointers that sell for less than £5.

But it emits light at a billion pulses per second, helping create what’s known as a frequency comb.

Professor Derryck Reid, leader of the Ultrafast Optics group at Heriot-Watt University, said the laser has tremendous potential to allow astronomers to spot small, Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

According to the university, the laser reduces the cost, complexity and power consumption of typical ultrashort pulse lasers by about a factor of 10.

https://ukdaily.news/london/the-universitys-new-laser-system-could-help-astronomers-find-exoplanets-65841.html

[PeterW]

No details though…. Sounds like a diode pumped ti:sapphire with some sort of nonlinear element to get thecomb… GHz pulses implies a very small cavity… no references given 😞

Peter

[Sunshine]

1 hour ago, Mandy D said:

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have developed a device powered by a green laser, similar to laser pointers that sell for less than £5.

But it emits light at a billion pulses per second, helping create what’s known as a frequency comb.

Professor Derryck Reid, leader of the Ultrafast Optics group at Heriot-Watt University, said the laser has tremendous potential to allow astronomers to spot small, Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

According to the university, the laser reduces the cost, complexity and power consumption of typical ultrashort pulse lasers by about a factor of 10.

https://ukdaily.news/london/the-universitys-new-laser-system-could-help-astronomers-find-exoplanets-65841.html

Cool, I want one! and these would be used for what? I just need to tell everyone I have a billion pulse frequency comb laser.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Sunshine

[davehowat]

Yeah not geeky at all 😃

[PeterW]

“Three-element, self-starting Kerr-lens-modelocked 1-GHz Ti:sapphire oscillator pumped by a single laser diode”, as I suspected, open access so you can read and make your own.. 😉

https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-30-22-39624&id=509839
 

Peter

… “attractive as a candidate for integration as a module into larger systems, for example multi-photon microscopes, quantum-timing systems or quantum optics experiments”, doesn’t push the space application and doesn’t mention frequency combs either… as that’s something you could use this type of laser to generate.

Edited October 24, 2022 by PeterW

[Mandy D]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

No details though…. Sounds like a diode pumped ti:sapphire with some sort of nonlinear element to get thecomb… GHz pulses implies a very small cavity… no references given 😞

Peter

Yes, I did a web search and could only find multiple copies of the article ... No further detail. Maybe a Google scholar search will find something. Reduces the cost by a factor of ten is not helpful either, as there is still scope for a six figure price tag unless we know the cost of the original frequency comb.

Edit: sorry missed your second post. Now it gets more interesting ...

Edited October 24, 2022 by Mandy D

[PeterW]

Decent fancy lasers are a £10s k usually, this one is just a couple of fancy components and a solid mounting, it’s nice and compact too, with W level power needs, always appreciated for satellites. The GHz rate means the frequency combs will be more spaced out.

 

Peter