LabCom Starlight+

PIs: Giorgio Santarelli (LP2N), Nick Traynor (ALS).
Associated permanent members: Germain Guiraud (ALS), Adèle Hilico (LP2N), M. Goeppner (ALS), C. Dixneuf (ALS).
The joint laboratory Starlight+ fosters together the skills of the French company Azur Light Systems (ALS) specialized in high power fiber lasers and the Photonic Systems group at LP2N for advanced metrology. The target of this team is to tackle technological and fundamental challenges in low noise high power laser systems for industrial and scientific applications.

Graduate students&Postdocs: Roopa Prakash (LP2N), Ester Szmygel (LP2N), Kentin Poncelet (ALS).

Presentation

Starlight+has been selected by the ANR LabCom Program (ANR LabCom) mid 2014 and started operations beginning of 2015.

After the 3 years initial phase the LabCom has enter in a consolidation phase (ANR LabCom consolidation 2017).

The LabCom is also strongly supported by the Conseil Régional Nouvelle Aquitaine

Road Map

Stable light sources find applications in many aspects of fundamental research (laser cooling, atomic clocks, quantum computing, atom interfereometry…), but also in an ever increasing number of real-world applications (LIDAR, holography, industrial instrumentation, high resolution spectroscopy for pollutant detection,….), where fine control of amplitude, frequency and phase is extremely important.

This joint laboratory aims to the creation of a new class of stabilized fiber lasers exhibiting unparalleled power, frequency stability and wavelength agility.

The scientific program is organized around three main research themes:

Study of laser noise properties and development of new stable laser systems based on MOPA fiber architectures in the spectral range from 976 – 1120 nm.
Development of systems for laser stabilization and frequency control, optimized specifically for fiber laser architectures.
Development of new architectures for agile lasers systems suitable for precise frequency sweeping in the visible and Deep Ultra Violet spectral regions using optimized resonant frequency conversion schemes.

Highlights

We are enthusiasts to communicate that the Germany-based laser manufacturer TOPTICA Photonics AG has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire the majority of the shares of our partner Azurlight Systems. Azurlight will continue and further foster its fiber laser business under the new name TOPTICA Photonics SAS. https://azurlight-systems.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/PR_TOPTICA_2023_Azurlight_EN.pdf

Dia Darwich and Giorgio Santarelli have presented two oral contributions at the Europhoton 2022 (Hannover 28/08-02/09) on Low noise high power fiber lasers

From December the 1^th Dr. Ester Szmygel has joined the LabCom Team after completion of a Ph.D in ultrafast nonlinear optics at Université de Bourgogne.

On the occasion of the "Rendez-vous Carnot" held in Lyon on November 17 and 18, Giorgio Santarelli received the FIEEC CARNOT Applied Research 2021 Award. The FIEEC CARNOT prize rewards researchers who have conducted a research partnership with an SME or ETI and have had a real economic impact.

Prix FIEEC CARNOT

From October 15^th Dr. Roopa Prakash has joined the LabCom Team after completion of a Ph.D in high power fiber lasers at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institue of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.

On September 28^th Clément Dixneuf successfully passed his Ph.D exam with a public in-person thesis defense at the Institute d'Optique d'Aquitaine.

The LabCom Team has demonstrated a low-noise and tunable laser in the telecom window ( 1533nm-1571 mn, 10W) (D. Darwich et al, 0.1364/AO.435274)

The LabCom Team has demonstrated a low-noise and high-power (17W) continous wave green source by single pass frequency doubling of a 1064 nm laser (C. Dixneuf et al, 10.1364/OL.415532)