Commercially available ultrashort-pulse laser technology: PART Ⅰ –LASERS

摘要

While their contribution to the total industrial laser market is still quite small (less than 10%), ultrashort- pulse (USP) laser revenue shares are growing faster than possibly any other industrial laser market sector and growth forecasts for the next few years look appealing. USP lasers, which I define to be picosecond and femtosecond lasers, could soon be a large-enough segment to actually have their own category in market forecasts, which they do not really enjoy now. Even well-known industry analyst Allen Nogee typically does not track femtosecond or picosecond lasers, except for special reports. According to Nogee, “It is not a trivial task to count all of them because there are many smaller companies producing just a small number, compared to CW [continuous-wave] lasers, which have to be sold in higher volumes to make money. Many companies are very niche and small.” This is very true, but I have observed the excitement in the USP market both in technical talks, which could open up vast new applications, and at exhibitions, where vendors are all talking about growth.