Four different schemes for the generation of femtosecond input pulses for ArF amplifiers are described. Pulse energies of 100 nJ were obtained with phase-matched frequency mixing of a Raman-shifted frequency-doubled pulse derived from a 537-nm femtosecond dye-laser pulse. Excellent spatial, spectral, and amplitude stability was obtained when a broadband, nanosecond dye laser at 690 nm was used ...

High-intensity femtosecond lasers have recently been used to irreversibly disrupt nanoscale structures, such as intracellular organelles, and to modify biological functions in a reversible manner: so-called nanosurgery and biophotomodulation. Femtosecond laser pulses above the threshold intensity sufficient for reversible biophotomodulation can cause irreversible changes in the irradiated cell,...

Introduction of biomolecules into cells in living animals is one of the most important techniques in molecular and developmental biology research, and has potentially broad biomedical implications. Here we report that biomolecules can be introduced into single cells in living vertebrate embryos by photoporation using a femtosecond laser amplifier with a high pulse energy and a low repetition ra...

This paper describes recent advances in the design and control of femtosecond laser combs for their use in optical clocks and in the synthesis of low-noise microwave and optical signals. The authors present a compact and technically simple femtosecond laser that directly emits a broad continuum and shows that it can operate continuously on the timescale of days as the phase-coherent “clockwork”...

Powerful femtosecond laser pulses propagating in transparent materials result in the formation of self-guided structures called filaments. Such filamentation in air can be controlled to occur at a distance as far as a few kilometers, making it ideally suited for remote sensing of pollutants in the atmosphere. On the one hand, the high intensity inside the filaments can induce the fragmentation ...

To evaluate the safety, efficacy, advantages, and limitations of femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery through a review of the literature. A PubMed search was conducted using topic-appropriate keywords to screen and select articles. Initial research has shown appropriate safety and efficacy of femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery, with improvements in anterior capsulotomy, phacofra...

We have performed sub-Doppler spectroscopy on the narrow intercombination line of cold calcium atoms using the amplified output of a femtosecond laser frequency comb. Injection locking of a 657-nm diode laser with a femtosecond comb allows for two regimes of amplification, one in which many lines of the comb are amplified, and one where a single line is predominantly amplified. The output of th...

Ultrafast time-resolved electron diffraction based on a photocathode rf electron gun is being developed in Osaka University to reveal the hidden dynamics of intricate molecular and atomic processes in materials. The photocathode rf gun generates a femtosecond-bunch electron beam by femtosecond laser driving. The transverse emittance, bunch length and energy spread were measured. The growths of ...

We implement a fiber-delivered compact femtosecond fiber laser at 1,030-nm wavelength in multiphoton imaging. The laser pulse duration is 150 fs, the average power is 200 mW, and the repetition rate is 40 MHz. The laser measures 200 x 160 x 45 mm in size and its output is delivered through a photonic bandgap fiber. Intrinsic second-harmonic generation signal is excited from rat tail tendon and ...

We report on the highly efficient generation of widely tunable femtosecond pulses based on intracavity second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum frequency generation (SFG) in a MgO-doped periodically poled LiNbO(3) optical parametric oscillator (OPO), which is pumped by a Yb-doped large-mode-area photonics crystal fiber femtosecond laser. Red and near infrared from intracavity SHG and SFG and in...