Revisiting the industrial revolution in scientific lasers

Experience from decades of industrial laser applications, along with vertical integration leading to better components and materials, have enabled laser manufacturers to build scientific lasers with industrial reliability. At Santa Clara, CA-based Coherent, investment in an immersive reliability concept called HALT/ HASS long used in other reliability-critical industries has assisted in achieving this goal (HALT stands for highly accelerated life testing and HASS stands for highly accelerated stress screening). For example, in a 2014 Laser Focus World article entitled "Ultrafast scientific lasers undergo an industrial revolution," Coherent noted that a one-box femtosecond oscillator was delivering levels of reliability that opened the path towards significant advances in data productivity. Six years is a long time in a dynamic field like ultrafast lasers, so now seems like a reasonable time to assess if and how this industrial revolution has progressed and more importantly, how it has impacted real scientific studies. The complex and challenging domain of femtosecond amplifiers is further explored.