1. Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that … Brian J. Orr (CLA, Macquarie University)

2. Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that … Brian J. Orr – Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109  The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment

3. Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that … Brian J. Orr – Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109  The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment  Things that we do well: – Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of small molecules – Time-resolved IR-UV & Raman-UV double resonance – Tunable narrowband optical parametric oscillators – Rapidly swept cavity ringdown spectroscopy

4. Centre for Lasers & Applications  The CLA was established as an ARC Special Research Centre in 1988  We specialise in developing high-power / high-performance lasers and their applications to science, industry, medicine & the community  Our work is founded on basic physics, optics, chemistry, biology, …  CLA  an 'umbrella' covering MQU's laser/optoelectronics R & D All-solid-state yellow laser for dermatology treatments Strontium vapour laser Development of high- brightness visible lasers

5. Available laser systems …  Pulsed lasers Excimer (193, 248, … nm) UV Cu(g) lasers (255, 271, 289 nm) Visible Cu(g) lasers (510, 578 nm) Nd:YAG (1064, 532, 355, 266 nm) CO 2 lasers (10.6 mm) Tunable dye lasers Nonlinear-optical wavelength conversion (SHG, OPO, SRS, …)  Ultrafast lasers <150 fs Hurricane (266, 400, 800 nm) <100 fs tunable MaiTai (780-820 nm)  Continuous-wave (cw) lasers CO 2 lasers (10.6 mm) Tunable diode lasers

6. CLA spin-offs …  Laser Micromachining Solutions Based on CLA expertise in high- power lasers and micromachining A ‘shopfront’ for local industry Success stories include: – Olympic torch orifices (’00, ’04) – Rotary shaft micro-encoders  CUDOS – ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems photonic crystals lab-on-a-chip  Initiatives in biophotonics, etc.

7. Micromachining for biotech …  Laser-trepanned hole: no recast; good thermal management  Accurate laser-machined cleaving of glass micropipette tips  Custom membranes for microbiology  UV-laser-machining of tiny holes in packaging to calibrate leak detectors

8. LIF-detected molecular processes …  Time-resolved IR-UV (and Raman-UV) double resonance spectroscopy (LIF-detected) Small molecules ( e.g., C 2 H 2, D 2 CO, … )  unusual processes with high- energy vibration & rotation UV-LIF probe  maps excited electronic states onto ground state If small molecules won’t behave as expected, why should big, (bio)molecules behave?  New microscopy prototypes?

9. IR-UV DR spectroscopy of C 2 H 2 (g) …

10. High-performance tunable laser sources & advanced spectroscopic sensing methods …  Nonlinear-optics  narrowband tunable optical parametric oscillators (OPOs)  Optical cavity + cw tunable diode lasers  cavity ringdown for high-sensitivity gas detection

11. Cavity ringdown spectroscopy …  Cw tunable diode lasers  sensitive gas det’n  Rapid cavity sweep  multi-, multi-species  Rapid frequency sweep  wide-range molecular ‘fingerprint’ spectra  Solution-phase analogues (e.g., via evanescent waves)  complementary to LIF?

12. Swept-frequency cavity ringdown …  Rapid frequency sweep  wide- range molecular ‘fingerprints’  Rapid-scan  CRD spectrum of CO 2 (g) in 2 s Swept-frequency incident radiation Radiation at discrete cavity resonance frequency HR

13. Lasers, molecular physics, optics, applications and all that … Brian J. Orr – Professor of Molecular and Optical Physics, – Director, Centre for Lasers and Applications, – Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2109  The Centre for Lasers & Applications (CLA) – Spin-offs: Laser Micromachining Sol’ns, CUDOS, … – Available CLA facilities: lasers & other equipment  Things that we do well: – Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of small molecules – Time-resolved IR-UV & Raman-UV double resonance – Tunable narrowband optical parametric oscillators – Rapidly swept cavity ringdown spectroscopy