2024: 60 Years of Laser Mode Locking

We present a brief history of mode locked lasers, starting from early beginnings in 1964, and including the transformation from mode-locked lasers to frequency combs in 2000. Based on the vast available research material, we also boldly attempt to predict where the technology may be headed in the future, encompassing commercial applications as well as new opportunities in fundamental science.
 
The talk heavily relies on the speaker's personal experience with fiber lasers, as Jeff Hecht pronounced in a recent review of ultrafast (fiber) lasers: 'Fiber lasers are bringing femtosecond technology to the masses.'
 
We will describe some of these mass applications and explain why their exploitation is ideally suited for fiber lasers. We close with an account of current research activities centered on fiber frequency combs and how high-power, fiber-frequency comb lasers may open up new pathways in big science.

Speaker: Martin E Fermann, IMRA America

Room 232