OTHER ELECTRONICS & NANOTECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRY UPDATE
February 2021
McIlvaine Company
Convergent Photonics Awarded $2.5M for Manufacturing
Center
Extreme UV
Source Facility Opens for Use
University of Tokyo researchers have established a high-frequency laser source
facility located at the university that enables investigation of time-dependent
phenomena such as ultrafast chemical reactions and fast-acting biological
processes. The facility specifically allows scientists to produce coherent
extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses and x-ray pulses — both highly precise light
forms with finely controlled parameters crucial to many experiments.
The
coherent XUV light source is particularly adept at revealing clear details of
biological and physical samples. Whereas existing facilities for research and
investigation using these pulses require large particle accelerators and are
often prohibitive to researchers, the new facility promises access for a broad
range of scientists.
The
XUV source facility is located in an underground laboratory, and contains a 5- ×
2-m vacuum container housing a 100-m-long resonator, which stores laser light.
Two distinct pockets of gases capable of altering the characteristics of the
passing laser are located on the coil. When the laser and gases interact, a
process known as high-order harmonic generation occurs. The process ensures that
the XUV source delivers ultrashort pulses, useful for probing fast phenomena, as
well as high frequencies, for examining the structure and chemical makeup of
matter.
The
presence of the gases also results in two separate beams of XUV and soft x-ray
light, which researchers cast onto samples during investigation. High-speed
imaging sensors finally read the light that is reflected off the samples.
Established XUV facilities using synchrotron radiation pulses also in the
megahertz region have long bursts that are poorly suited for resolving dynamic,
fast-acting phenomena. The new facility and its approach involve extremely short
XUV pulses occurring at extremely high frequencies — in the megahertz region, or
millions of cycles per second, said Katsumi Midorikawa, professor in the
University of Tokyo Institute for Photon Science and Technology and RIKEN Center
for Advanced Photonics.
“Facilities to produce coherent XUV and soft x-rays are huge machines based on
particle accelerators – like smaller versions of the Large Hadron Collider in
Europe,” Midorikawa said. “Given the rarity of these facilities and the expense
on running experiments there, it presents a barrier to many who might wish to
use them. This is what prompted myself and colleagues at UTokyo and RIKEN to
create a new kind of facility that we hope will be far more accessible for a
greater number of researchers to use.”
Convergent Photonics Awarded $2.5M for Manufacturing
Center
Convergent Photonics has been awarded a $2,581,109 grant from the Massachusetts
Manufacturing Innovation Initiative to support the development of an advanced
manufacturing center in partnership with Western New England University (WNE).
Called a “Lab for Education and Application Prototyping,” or LEAP, the lab will
focus on product development, training, and research in integrated photonics,
and will be the fourth lab of its kind in its state, according to a press
release from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
The
facility will support Convergent as it aims to develop high-powered laser diodes
for medical systems and fiber lasers used as optical power supplies in data
centers. A high-power semiconductor laser lab will be installed, too, as well as
a state-of-the-art education and training facility for students, teachers, and
faculty from WNE, Springfield Technical Community College, and other
Massachusetts institutions, according to a Massachusetts Manufacturing
Innovation Initiative announcement introducing the award.
“These LEAP facilities are critical to our next-generation workforce of skilled
technicians, engineers, scientists, and leaders in the growing field of
integrated photonics, as well as ensuring our national security in manufacturing
and defense-related supply chains,” said Dr. Michael J. Cumbo, CEO of AIM
Photonics. AIM is supporting the facility to be managed by Convergent and WNE.
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