MII and MIIPS™
Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference (MII)
MII is a well understood physical process that takes place during nonlinear optical excitation.[1, 2]Using MII one can design specific shaped pulses that suppress certain nonlinear optical processes. This is extremely important for applications such as two-photon microscopy. MII has been demonstrated on a number of different samples ranging from atoms to crystals and from isolated molecules to proteins in solution.
Click here to see a video of MIIPS in action. (16 MB)
Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan (MIIPS™)
Unlike other pulsed sources, femtosecond pulses experience frequency dependence of the group velocity of light when propagating through any medium. Therefore, applications requiring femtosecond lasers depend on accurate compensation of dispersion effects. Industrial, as well as clinical, applications require that all lasers consistently deliver identical pulses to the target to ensure reproducibility. Pulse characterization and automated compensation make this possible. MIIPS™ is the breakthrough technology that accomplishes automated characterization and optimization of ultrafast femtosecond lasers.
MIIPS™ uses a pulse shaper that introduces a calibrated reference phase function to measure spectral phase distortions. As the reference phase is scanned, a MIIPS™ trace is obtained and the phase is calculated. This phase is used to compensate the pulse to achieve bandwidth-limited pulses. The phase dependence of nonlinear optical processes such as second-harmonic generation is used by the algorithm to directly measure the second derivative of the phase, without the need for inversion algorithms. The entire fully automated process is completed with unprecedented accuracy. MIIPS™ has been used for a number of applications such as two-photon microscopy and biomedical imaging; detection of chemical and biological warfare agents and explosives; femtosecond laser micromachining; and control of chemical reactions. MIIPS™ has been used with pulses as short as 4.6 fs, and has no wavelength or energy limitations. The MIIPS™ technology and its applications are patented and have been licensed exclusively by BioPhotonic Solutions Inc. Through a strategic collaboration between BioPhotonic Solutions Inc. and Coherent (Santa Clara, CA), the MIIPS™ technology is now available to the R&D community. The Silhouette ultrafast pulse shaper includes the MIIPS™ engine and has already been installed in some of the most prestigious research institutions in the United States, Canada, England, Korea, and Germany.
Links:Do you want a MIIPS™ enabled pulse shaper? A system is available from Coherent Inc.
MIIPS™ application notes: What can you do with MIIPS™?
Do you have an application that can use MIIPS™? Please let us know!
Do you want to know more about MIIPS™? Feature article in Laser Focus World.
Click here to see a video of MIIPS in action. (16 MB)
MIIPS™ in the wikipedia.