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Ultrafast Optics

Ultrafast optics is concerned with the generation, amplification, manipulation, and applications of femtosecond (10-15 s) pulses of light. The University of Michigan is home to the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, which is an interdisciplinary research center in the College of Engineering and one of the leading laboratories in the field. Research areas at CUOS include ultrafast high power fiber lasers, applications of femtosecond pulses to semiconductor optoelectronics, quantum structures, materials science, micromachining, biophotonics, nanophotonics, and high field science. CUOS is home to the world’s highest intensity laser, HERCULES, which has demonstrated 1022 W/cm2 peak intensity on target. Applications of ultra-intense lasers include relativistic optics, laser-plasma interactions, laboratory astrophysics, electron and ion acceleration, and short-wavelength generation. CUOS has active interactions with many other UM laboratories and centers, including the Nuclear Engineering and Radiolocical Sciences department, the Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering departments, the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences, and the Michigan Nanofabrication Facility.

Center for Ultrafast Optical Science Website