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Imagine a scalpel that cuts through bone or tissue so cleanly, it
cauterizes instantly, leaving only minimal tissue damage. Canadian researchers
are at the forefront of this new optical technology that is also making
waves in telecommunications and manufacturing.
Breakthroughs in optical laser technology by researchers at Université
Laval and across Canada are ushering in a new era in operating room procedures,
telecommunications and micro-manufacturing - and further boosting Canada's
global reputation for excellence in ultra-fast laser applications.
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Training Tomorrow's Engineers
Canada is training a new generation of experts in femtosecond laser technology through ongoing university research supported by the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations. In addition to the 24 graduate and undergraduate students who received training this year, the industrial partner in the project has funded two graduate student scholarships annually. EXFO also performs much of its lab work onsite at Université Laval.
"The students also provide our engineers with a fresh approach and intellectual stimulation," says Dr. Gregory Schinn, Chief Technology Officer and Director of the Research Division at EXFO. "It's very exciting to have exploratory research being undertaken within our internal R&D facilities. This is not the type of research normally funded by companies."
Project leader Dr. Michel Piché at Université Laval says the project has been a tremendous opportunity for the students to train for real-world applications and gain experience with a potential employer.
Dr. Schinn is particularly pleased with the collaboration. "In terms of openness, the general spirit of co-operation and trust and goodwill, it has been excellent. And there's a fairly high chance that commercially-useful work will come out of it."
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The ongoing research, funded by the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI), has been making strides in developing extremely stable and compact femtosecond laser sources and amplified femtosecond systems that can be used in industrial applications.
Canada's first femtosecond laser is being commercialized by GAP Optique, a subsidiary of EXFO, a leader in test and measurement instrumentation for optical communications. The company is a long-standing affiliate of CIPI and one of the funding partners in the three-year research project, which began in 2002.
"I believe that in terms of price-to-performance ratio, this femtosecond laser is the best in the world," says Dr. Gregory Schinn, chief technology officer and director of the Research Division at EXFO. "We have already had a number of sales in Canada, based only on word of mouth. Now that the development cycle is finished, we are starting to market the product. So we're just at the beginning of the curve."
The laser design was optimized by Vincent Roy, a Ph.D. student supervised by Dr. Michel Piché at Université Laval. Laval has also been working closely with the University of Toronto, McMaster University and the University of Waterloo to manipulate the laser pulses to meet the needs of various applications.
Femtosecond lasers are widely used in laboratories, but their cost and complexity have so far limited their industrial use. This new design introduces a device that is compact, reliable and applicable to industries such as medicine, dentistry, telecommunications and micro-machining. "The previous technology was expensive, difficult to operate and locked in the lab because of its size," explains Dr. Piché. "A technician can take this laser on the road and bring it to the application. It opens up a world of new opportunities for diagnostics."
Femtosecond lasers are able to deliver energy in extremely short bursts of light that can be focused onto areas smaller than the tip of a needle. With such concentrated power, it is possible to write 3D structures inside materials with submicron precision. One femtosecond is to one second what one second is to 31 million years.
Says Dr. Piché: "It is going to make test and measurement of the response times of telecommunication devices easier and more precise. To make faster links, we need faster components. This laser is a fundamental improvement in testing both components and networks."
www.cipi.ulaval.ca
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