The PIRL concept is the first method of any to achieve surgery without scar tissue formation. This new laser concept has achieved the long held promise for the laser for attaining the fundamental limit to minimally invasive surgery. The very prospect of high precision surgery without scar tissue formation is readily appreciated to potentially revolutionize surgery and holds equally great promise in providing in situ bio-diagnostics.
The goal of this work is to develop a more compact, robust and higher power version of the ERC SUREPIRL (ERC AdG_20110209, project ID 291630) project’s laser system with improved beam quality and delivery methods to drive adoption of the concept and open up commercial surgical and bio-diagnostic applications. The current cross-disciplinary collaboration between the physicists, chemists, and surgeons within the SUREPIRL project has led to significant advancements in knowledge as to demands on beam power and beam shape necessary for full scale commercial implementation of this technology. This project idea builds upon the unique applications enabled by the novel PIRL technology – currently under investigation by the SUREPIRL project – to develop a new laser device based on direct amplification of 3 μm laser radiation. Recent advances in the field of research on Chromium-doped chalcogenide gain materials make it possible to realize sufficient power amplification in this wavelength region on the picosecond pulse timescale. The possible gain in power and reduction in size will permit for the rapid translation of SUREPIRL project findings to industry, with significant commercial and societal benefit.
The key concept demonstrated in the course of this project work is the Cr-doped chalcogenide based amplifier operating in the kHz pulsed regime with 3 µm seed pulses of around 300 ps pulse lengths. The approach to proving this key concept relied on custom built components designed to match close to optimal parameters. A 2 micrometer wavelength pump system, a 3 µm seed laser, and a Cr:Chalcogenide crystal based amplifier module were constructed and tested. Design and implementation were realized successfully, and in conclusion the viability of the proposed concept for a next generation CoPIRL laser system could be demonstrated.
