National Research Council of Canada

Dh Technologies Development Pte. Ltd.

David Rayner

Paul B Corkum

Cyril Hnatovsky

Rod S Taylor

Alexandre V Loboda

Andrei Yu Naumov

Ravi Bhardwaj Vedula

Ravi Bhardwaj

Eli Simova

Orson Bourne

Manjusha Mehendale

Paul Corkum

The present disclosure generally provides ionization methods and devices for use in mass spectrometry. In some embodiments, the ionization methods and devices employ short laser pulses (e.g., pulses having pulsewidths in a range of about 2 fs to about 1 ps) at a high intensity (e.g., an intensity in a range of about 1 TW/cmto about 1000 TW/cm) to ionize an analyte an ambient pressure greater than about 10Torr (e.g., an ambient pressure in a range of about 1 atmosphere to about 100 atmospheres).

Ionization with femtosecond lasers at elevated pressure

To make high quality long-range periodic nanostructures in a transparent or semi-transparent substrate, the transparent or semi-transparent substrate is scanned with a linearly polarized laser beam generated by a femtosecond laser and exceeding a predetermined energy/pulse threshold along a scanning path. Sub-diffraction limit structures are formed as periodic planes of modified material in the transparent or semi-transparent substrate extending along the scanning path. The modified material can then be chemically etched to form cavities.

Fabrication of long range periodic nanostructures in transparent or semitransparent dielectrics

A sub-micron structure is fabricated in a transparent dielectric material by focusing femtosecond laser pulses into the dielectric to create a highly tapered modified zone with modified etch properties. The dielectric material is then selectively etched into the modified zone from the direction of the narrow end of the tapered zone so that as the selective etching proceeds longitudinally into the modified zone, the progressively increasing width of the modified zone compensates for lateral etching occurring closer to the narrow end so as to produce steep-walled holes. The unetched portion of the modified zone produced by translating the laser beam close to and parallel to the bottom surface of the dielectric can serve as an optical waveguide to collect light from or deliver light to the etched channel which can contain various biological, optical, or chemical materials for sensing applications.

Method of fabricating sub-micron structures in transparent dielectric materials

The present invention relates to a method for writing an optical structure within a workpiece of a dielectric material using FLDM. In a first embodiment system parameters for the FLDM are determined in dependence upon the dielectric material, a predetermined volume element and a predetermined change of the refractive index of the dielectric material within the predetermined volume element. The system parameters are determined such that self-focusing of a pulsed femtosecond laser beam is inhibted by non-linear absorption of the energy of the pulsed femtosecond laser beam within the dielectric material. A pulsed femtosecond laser beam based on the determined system parameters is focused at a predetermined location within the workpiece for inducing a change of the refractive index through dielectric modification within the predetermined volume element, the volume element including the focus. Various embodiments enable writing of various different optical structures into a workpiece.

Methods for creating optical structures in dielectrics using controlled energy deposition

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David Rayner