Facilities
Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics:
Microsecond lasers
- Evolution - the diode-pumped intra-cavity doubled Nd:YLF laser is capable of producing Q-switched pulses with an average energy > 20mJ at 527nm at repetition rates of above 1kHz.
Nanosecond lasers
- Quata-Ray Lab 170 - Nd:YAG high power laser with a 10 Hz repetition rate, 1st harmonic wavelength 1064 nm at 850 mJ/pulse and a pulse width of 8-12 ns
- Quanta-Ray Pro 250 - Nd:YAG high power laser with a 10 Hz repetition rate, 1st harmonic wavelength 1064 nm at 1500 mJ/pulse and a pulse width of 8-12 ns
Femtosecond lasers
- Tsunami - Femtosecond Mode-locked Ti:Sapphire Laser is a solid-state laser capable of tunable laser operation over a broad range of near infrared wavelengths from 690nm to 1080nm. The pulse width of the Tsunami output is about 130 femtosecond and peak power is more than 140kW at a wavelength of 790nm with a pulse repetition rate of 82MHz.
- Spitfire - Regenerative amplifier is designed to amplify single pulses from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. Typically, an input pulse of energy of a nfew nanojoules can be amplified to over 1mJ. This represents an overall amplification of greater than 106.
Spitfire Laser
Picosecond lasers
- Ekspla SFG Spectrometer- Mode-locked picosecond Nd:YAG laser generating 25 ps pulses that pump an OPG/DFG delivering from 260 to 20 µJ per pulse across the IR range. SFG spectrometer operates from 4300 to 625 cm-1 and provides < 6 cm-1 spectral width.
Ekspla SFG set-up
Continuous Non-linear Optics
- Millennia - High power visible CW laser that provides 10W of green 532nm output from a Nd:YVO4 crystal frequency doubled by a non-critically phase matched, temperature tuned Lithium Triborate (LBO) crystal.
Electro-Optics and Integrated Optics:
- Electro-optic characterization of materials and devices
- Electro-optic imaging microscope
- Optical Prism Coupling and Waveguide characterization facilities
Scanning Probe Microscopy
- Piezoelectric Force Microscopy (PFM)
- Scanning Surface Potential Microscopy (SSPFM)
Piezoelectric Force Microscope
Imaging
Witec Alpha300 System
- Confocal imaging
- Raman imaging
- Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy (SNOM)
- Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)
Gabriella Shepard working on the Witec Alpha300 system
Fiber Optics:
Optical Imaging Techniques
- Second harmonic generation measurements
- Four-wave mixing and Z-scan measurements
- Confocal Scanning Optical Microscope
- High-speed camera for tracking dynamic processes (2K frames/s)
- Aurora Near-field Scanning Optical Microscope
Others:
- Ultrasonic Nozzle Chemical Vapor Deposition
- Thermomicroscopes Explorer Scanning Force Microscope
- Dielectric characterization facility
- Commercial Software packages for Simulation
We have access to and use many other facilities around campus:
- Class 100 (MRL) and class 10 (MRI) clean rooms for integrated optical devices.
- Automated 3-gun DC and RF-magnetron sputtering system with a load lock
- The NNIN@Penn State - The NanoFab
- W. M. Keck Smart Materials Integration Laboratory
- Materials Characterization Laboratory
- Campus Wide Materials Resources
