LabCom Starlight+

PIs: Giorgio Santarelli (LP2N), Nick Traynor (TOPTICA).
Associated permanent members: Adèle Hilico (LP2N), Germain Guiraud (TOPTICA), M. Goeppner (TOPTICA).
The joint laboratory Starlight+ fosters together the skills of the French company TOPTICA Photonics SAS (formerly Azur Light Systems) (TOPTICA) 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&engineers: Ruizhe Gu (LP2N), Kentin Poncelet (TOPTICA), Coline Lavit (LP2N).

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

From January the 1^th 2024 Coline Lavit has joined the LabCom Team as research engineer in high power fiber laser development for quantum applications.

December 2023. The LabCom Team has demonstrated a low noise Neodymium laser-pumped Brillouin operating around 920nm (R. Prakash and al, 10.1364/OE.506410)

November 2023. Nick Traynor and Giorgio Santarelli represent Starlight+ at the event 10 years of LabComs organized by the ANR and located at Maison de la Chimie in Paris in Evenement Labcom 10 ans.

From June the 1^th 2023 Dr. Ruizhe Gu has joined the LabCom Team after completion of a Ph.D in ultrafast acoustic phonon pump probe spectroscopy at Université of Le Mans.

We are enthusiasts to communicate that the Germany-based laser manufacturer TOPTICA Photonics AG has finalize the aquisition of 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.Toptica completes the acquisition of azurlight systems

From March the 1^th 2023 Kentin Poncelet has joined the LabCom Team as PhD. student in high power fiber laser investigation for quantum applications.

September 2021 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 2021 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 2021 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 2021Clément Dixneuf successfully passed his Ph.D exam with a public in-person thesis defense at the Institute d'Optique d'Aquitaine.