Generation of intense femtosecond laser pulses with water for dispersion compensation

Research Project

Project/Area Number	16K13703
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Optical engineering, Photon science
Research Institution	National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology
Principal Investigator	Akahane Yutaka 国立研究開発法人量子科学技術研究開発機構, 関西光科学研究所量子生命科学研究部, 主幹研究員(定常) (00370338)
Project Period (FY)	2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2018)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥780,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
Keywords	チャープパルス増幅 / 光パラメトリック増幅 / 分散補償 / 波面計測 / パラメトリック増幅
Outline of Final Research Achievements	A novel high-intense CPA laser using water for pulse compression has been studied. An enagetic negative-chirped pulse with 500 nm wavelength region that is amplified in OPA process, is compressed to femtosecond pulse by passing through water for its positive dispersion, which enables us an intense femtosecond laser generation on targets in waver. In this research a pair of taper-shaped glass block for dispersion compensation, a water tank for suitable pulse compression, and PG-FROG for phase measurement have been developed, which confirmed the effecitiveness of this scheme. In near future, a direct femtosecond laser irradiation in water will be realized from the results of this research, which makes possible novel applications such as femtosecond-LIBS material detection, effective material processing in water.
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究では従来Nd:YAG等の産業用レーザーでは実現できなかった波長500 nm帯でフェムト秒レーザー光パルスを計測・制御する技術の開発行っている。本研究の成果で開発されるレーザー装置は水中でのフェムト秒レーザーLIBS、レーザー加工及びレーザーピーニングの高効率化を実現し、深海資源調査や原子炉等の発電プラント内検査・補修などの学術及び産業分野で社会に多大な恩恵をもたらすことが期待される。また波長500 nm帯の光はヘモグロビンの吸収が最も小さい波長帯であり、人体の60%以上が水分であることから今後生体・医療応用の面でも高強度フェムト秒パルスレーザーの可能性を示せたと考えている。