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