femtosecond laser tagged posts

Their technique could transform a scientific field reliant on cost-prohibitive technology. Researchers have developed a light-based means of printing nano-sized metal structures that is 480 times faster and 35 times cheaper than the current conventional method. It is a scalable solution that could transform a scientific field long reliant on technologies that are prohibitively expensive and slow. Their method is called superluminescent light projection (SLP).

Technological advances in many fields rely on the ability to print metallic structures that are nano-sized — a scale hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Sourabh Saha, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and Jungho Choi, a Ph.D...

1. Mechanisms and time-resolved dynamics for trihydrogen cation (H3 ) formation from organic molecules in strong laser fields. Scientific Reports, 2017; 7 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04666-w
2. MSU’s Marcos Dantus has recreated interstellar ions with lasers.
Credit: Courtesy of MSU

Trihydrogen, H3+, is called the molecule that made the universe, where it plays a greater role in astrochemistry than any other molecule. While H3+ is astronomically abundant, no scientist understood the mechanisms that form it from organic molecules. Until now. Using lasers, Michigan State University scientists have unlocked the secret and published their results in the current issue of Scientific Reports...

Researchers at the University’s Institute of Optics developed a technique that uses lasers to render materials hydrophobic—extremely water repellant. (University photo / Matthew Mann)

Tiny micro- and nanoscale structures within a material’s surface are invisible to the naked eye, but play a big role in determining a material’s physical, chemical, and biomedical properties. Over the past few years, Chunlei Guo and his University of Rochester team found ways to manipulate those structures by irradiating laser pulses to a material’s surface. They altered materials to make them repel water, attract water, and absorb great amounts of light – all without any type of coating. Now, Guo, Anatoliy Vorobyev, and Ranran Fang at University’s Institute of Optics, have advanced the research...