Excimer laser cut UA Logo in a Chrome thin film on glass.

This last week, Dr. Bryon Wright and I traveled to Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, to evaluate our new laser µ-Machining station. After a week of system demonstration and training, we’ve happily accepted the new system, and expect delivery by the end of June. While we were testing the system, we demonstrated a minum direct write feature size of ~ 2 µm. For fun we used the system’s excimer laser (λ = 248nm) to inscribe the UA logo in a thin film of chrome. The complete logo is ~ 0.5 mm in width. For some more initial test results you can look at the UA micro-machining website as well.

Today we successfully completed the installation of the Coherent Legened Elite Amplified Laser System. We are now producing 100 fs pulses with 4.0mJ of energy per pulse, and 35 fs pulses, each at 3.8 mJ. This clears the way for the additional installations of the remaining hardware for the photon factory. This will include, the JPSA integrated micromachining platform, and two TOPAS optical amplifiers.  These installations are projected to take place in April and May of this year.