Thin Disk Laser wins major EU support

October 22, 2013

The development of ultrafast thin disk lasers with high average powers will be supported by substantial funding from the European Commission (EC) during the next three years. The strategic and scientific efforts of the IFSW at the University of Stuttgart towards the next generation of ultra-fast lasers has now culminated in two major STREP projects supported by the 7th Framework Program for Research of the EC. Both projects aim at thin disk lasers with several hundred watts of average power, one with sub-100fs pulses based on Ti:Sapphire disks with double-sided cooling and the other with a combination of a single crystal fiber as first amplifier stage and an Yb:YAG thin disk multipass amplifier as power booster for ps pulses with cylindrical polarizations.

Both projects are directed by the IFSW’s Laser Development and Optics department, headed by Dr. M. Abdou Ahmed, in cooperation with renowned partners: Thales Optronique SA (France), Element Six Ltd. (UK), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS (France), Oxford Lasers Ltd. (UK), and M-Squared Lasers Ltd. (UK) for the Ti:Sapphire thin disk laser project (coordination Dr. A. Voß, IFSW, Uniersity of Stuttgart, Germany) and Time-Bandwidth Products AG (Switzerland), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS (France), Fibercryst SAS (France), Next Scan Technology B.V. (The Netherlands), GFH GmbH (Germany), Schweißtechnische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt SLV Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), and Class 4 Laser Professionals AG (Switzerland) for the project on the cylindrically polarized ultrafast thin disk lasers (coordinated by Dr. M. Abdou Ahmed, IFSW, University of Stuttgart, Germany). The two projects together have a volume of 9,14 million € and receive a grant of 6,37 million € from the EC of which 1,9 million € are spent for the research at the IFSW (University of Stuttgart). The consortia acknowledge the excellent support from Kite Innovation Ltd. (UK) for the preparation of the proposals.

Contact: Dr. Marwan Abdou Ahmed

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