1. A new generation of ultrafast Ti:sapphire lasers is underway

Ti:sapphire ultrafast lasers are currently undergoing a revolutionary transformation—direct diode pumping with small laser diodes enables ultracompact and affordable systems.

Today’s diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers use 808 nm diodes to pump a neodymium-doped or semiconductor gain material to generate laser output around 1064 nm, which is then frequency-doubled to 532 nm. All these intermediate steps require a significant amount of space, and introduce losses, heat, and optical noise. Consequently, the Ti:sapphire laser usually comes with a bulky laser head and a huge control unit, not to mention the chiller to remove the excessive heat generated by the complicated frequency conversions. Combined with the high costs (often around $100,000), Ti:sapphire lasers—despite their undisputed performance—have never been an accessible or user-friendly device for daily applications. If these limitations cannot be overcome, Ti:sapphire ultrafast lasers will remain an expensive system with top performance for niche customers.

How can Ti:sapphire lasers compete with fiber lasers’ affordability and user-friendliness?

The turning point for Ti:sapphire lasers appeared in 2011, when Roth et al. demonstrated the first ultrafast, directly diode-pumped Ti:sapphire laser.¹ By replacing the bulky DPSS pump with gallium nitride (GaN) laser diodes, the Ti:sapphire laser has mitigated its biggest weakness. But the GaN laser diodes initially emitted at non-ideal wavelengths, had limited power, and poorer beam quality—so the output power of such a directly diode-pumped system remained quite low....

Read more: https://www.laserfocusworld.com/lasers-sources/article/14277966/a-new-generation-of-ultrafast-tisapphire-lasers-is-underwayst Ti:sapphire lasers is underway | Laser Focus World

The source of news: A new generation of ultrafast Ti:sapphire lasers is underway | Laser Focus World

2. NASA’s Webb Space Telescope reveals stunning images of universe’s mind-bending awesomeness

Webb just cracked open new views into the cosmos by providing the deepest and most detailed images of our early universe.

NIRCam

NIRCam is Webb’s primary imager and it operates over a wavelength range of 0.6 to 5 µm. It can detect light from the earliest stars and galaxies in the process of formation, the population of stars in nearby galaxies, as well as young stars withing the Milky Way and Kuiper objects.  

NIRCam features 10 mercury-cadmium-telluride (HgCdTe) detector arrays, which are analogous to charge-coupled devices (CCDs) used in off-the-shelf digital cameras. It’s also an optical telescope element wavefront sensor, which helps bring distant galaxies into sharp focus—including their tiny, faint structures never been seen before, such as star clusters and diffuse features.

A star in final throes of death

Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI captured the details of the Southern Ring planetary nebula (see Fig. 4 in gallery above), which are shells of gas and dust ejected by dying stars, and were previously hidden from astronomers.

New details from the last stages of a star’s life can help researchers explore how stars evolve and transform their environments, and this image also reveals a cache of distant galaxies in the background (multicolored points of light shown in this image are galaxies, not stars).

Read more: https://www.laserfocusworld.com/detectors-imaging/media-gallery/14279580/nasas-webb-space-telescope-reveals-stunning-images-of-universes-mindbending-awesomeness

The source of news: NASA’s Webb Space Telescope reveals stunning images of universe’s mind-bending awesomeness | Laser Focus World

3. James webb Telescope Picture

The source of news: Science Releases (webbtelescope.org)