Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that …Brian J. Orr (CLA, Macquarie University)
Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that …Brian J. Orr– Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109
The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment
Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that …Brian J. Orr– Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109
The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment Things that we do well: – Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of small molecules – Time-resolved IR-UV & Raman-UV double resonance – Tunable narrowband optical parametric oscillators – Rapidly swept cavity ringdown spectroscopy
Centre for Lasers & Applications
The CLA was established as an ARC Special Research Centre in 1988
We specialise in developing high-power / high-performance lasers and their applications to science, industry, medicine & the community
Our work is founded on basic physics, optics, chemistry, biology, …
CLA an 'umbrella' covering MQU's laser/optoelectronics R&D
All-solid-state yellow laser
for dermatology treatments
Strontium vapour laser
Development of high-brightness visible lasers
Available laser systems … Pulsed lasers
Excimer (193, 248, … nm) UV Cu(g) lasers (255, 271, 289 nm) Visible Cu(g) lasers (510, 578 nm) Nd:YAG (1064, 532, 355, 266 nm) CO2 lasers (10.6 mm) Tunable dye lasers Nonlinear-optical wavelength conversion (SHG, OPO, SRS, …)
Ultrafast lasers <150 fs Hurricane (266, 400, 800
nm) <100 fs tunable MaiTai (780-820
nm)
Continuous-wave (cw) lasers
CO2 lasers (10.6 mm) Tunable diode lasers
CLA spin-offs … Laser Micromachining Solutions
Based on CLA expertise in high- power lasers and micromachining A ‘shopfront’ for local industry Success stories include: – Olympic torch orifices (’00, ’04) – Rotary shaft micro-encoders
CUDOS – ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems
photonic crystals lab-on-a-chip
Initiatives in biophotonics, etc.
Micromachining for biotech …
Laser-trepanned hole: no recast; good thermal management
Accurate laser-machined cleaving of glass micropipette tips
Custom membranes for microbiology
UV-laser-machining of tiny holes in packaging to calibrate leak detectors
LIF-detected molecular processes …
Time-resolved IR-UV (and
Raman-UV) double resonance spectroscopy (LIF-detected)
Small molecules (e.g., C2H2,
D2CO, …) unusual processes with high- energy vibration & rotation UV-LIF probe maps excited electronic states onto ground state If small molecules won’t behave as expected, why should big, (bio)molecules behave?
New microscopy prototypes?
IR-UV DR spectroscopy of C2H2 (g) …
High-performance tunable laser sources & advanced spectroscopic sensing methods … Nonlinear-optics narrowband tunable optical parametric
oscillators (OPOs)
Optical cavity + cw
tunable diode lasers cavity ringdown for high-sensitivity
gas detection
Cavity ringdown spectroscopy … Cw tunable diode lasers sensitive gas det’n
Rapid cavity sweep
multi-, multi-species
Rapid frequency sweep wide-range molecular ‘fingerprint’ spectra
Solution-phase analogues (e.g., via evanescent waves) complementary to LIF?
Swept-frequency cavity ringdown …
Rapid frequency sweep wide- range molecular ‘fingerprints’
Rapid-scan CRD spectrum of CO2 (g) in 2 s
Swept-frequency incident radiation
Radiation at discrete cavity
resonance frequency
HR HR
Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that …Brian J. Orr– Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109
The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment Things that we do well: – Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of small molecules – Time-resolved IR-UV & Raman-UV double resonance – Tunable narrowband optical parametric oscillators – Rapidly swept cavity ringdown spectroscopy