New Jersey Patent of the Month – November 2021

Ultrafast lasers are lasers that produce short pulses of light, typically less than one picosecond. Certain applications require exceptionally rapid pulses of energy, which can be amplified using chirped pulse amplification. This is achieved by temporarily stretching the pulsewidth of a seed laser by reflective gratings in an optical set up called a Stretcher. These Stretchers are known to be lossy and cause distortion of the laser beam. Femto Blanc, Inc. has designed a system that improves this amplification and the reliability of the resultant pulsewidth.

A conventional ultrafast laser system has a laser oscillator, stretcher, pulse-picker, laser amplifier, and an optical pulse compressor. Femto Blanc’s design removes the need for a stretcher, replacing it with the use of positive Group Delay Dispersion (GDD) intracavity mirrors and a pre-chirped femtosecond oscillator. This amplifies the laser pulse which is then compressed by a single transmissive grating and maintains beam quality. 

Their GDD mirrors are coated with a custom design, allowing for a ˜4000 fs2 of dispersion to the input laser pulse per reflection. The seed laser beam reflects off the positive GDD mirrors and cycles through the laser amplifier cavity. Each cycle through this cavity amplifies the seed laser pulse until it reaches its peak power. Since this method employs a single transmission grating, the amplified pulse is less compromised by the stretching and compressing optics.

Are you developing new technology for an existing application? Did you know your development work could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and you can receive up to 14% back on your expenses? Even if your development isn’t successful your work may still qualify for R&D credits (i.e. you don’t need to have a patent to qualify). To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today or check out our free online eligibility test.

Who We Are:

Swanson Reed is one of the U.S.’ largest Specialist R&D tax advisory firms. We manage all facets of the R&D tax credit program, from claim preparation and audit compliance to claim disputes.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE and CPE credits for CPAs. For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

Recent Posts