Femtosecond laser for material-processing and multiphoton imaging

Cycle's SOPRANO is designed for industrial as well as scientific environments and to deliver reliable 24/7 operation.

The SOPRANO femtosecond lasers are compact and low-noise laser sources at 1560 nm. Depending on your ultrafast application, they can be set with ultrashort pulses, high pulse energy, or a standard laser can be synchronized to  another femtosecond laser or an RF oscillator with a femtosecond precision.

- Wavelength at 1560 nm (frequency doubling to 775 nm optional)

• Pulse energy 14 nJ

• Repetition rate 30-110 MHz

• Pulse duration below 160 fs

• Turn-key, no water-cooling required

Cycle’s SONATA femtosecond laser delivers clean and low-noise pulses, and dual fiber/free-space outputs at 1030 nm.

It provides a chirped picosecond pulse from fiber port for amplification and a compressed free-space output for detection and stabilization—ideal for ultrafast applications, amplifier seeding, and nonlinear microscopy.

With optics and electronics integrated into a single compact unit, SONATA ensures a seamless, plug-and-play experience. Its femtosecond pulses, stable repetition rate, and fiber-based reliability make it a top choice for optics labs and industry.

• SESAM-free, all-PM, low-noise fiber laser with high environmental stability

• Turn-key, hands-free operation

• 30s laser start-up time

• High frequency and intensity stability

• Low timing jitter and relative intensity noise (RIN)

• Dual isolated output ports at 1030 nm

TCBOC allows ultra-precise measurement of timing jitter between two independent optical pulse trains, at different central wavelengths.

The TCBOC is a natural extension to Cycle’s well-known and patented (one-color) BOC and is used for sub-femtosecond fiber link stabilization over kilometer distances. Due to a balanced optical detection scheme, the TCBOC provides exceptionally high timing sensitivity, attosecond timing resolution, amplitude invariance and robustness against environmental fluctuations. The output of the TCBOC is a baseband voltage signal that is proportional to the relative time delay between the two sources. This output can in turn be used in a phase-locked loop to synchronize the two optical sources (e.g. locking a Ti:Sapphire laser to a low-noise fiber oscillator). Standard wavelengths are 800 nm, 1030 nm and/or 1550 nm.

• More than 1 mV/fs sensitivity

• Lower than 0.5 fs RMS noise floor

• Less than 15 fs RMS timing jitter and timing drift

• Attosecond-level timing jitter resolution

PULSE Timing Distribution System delivers optical signals to remote locations with the lowest added timing jitter and drift available on the market.

PULSE takes advantage of the inherently low noise pulse trains of a mode-locked laser (i.e. optical master oscillator, or OMO in short) and uses it as its timing signal which can be referenced to an optical or RF clock. The carefully selected OMO timing signal is transferred through fiber-optic timing links to multiple end stations where transmission delays are detected with attosecond resolution using Cycle’s patented balanced optical cross-correlators (BOC) and actively compensated.

At the output of the stabilized fiber links, either an ultrafast laser or a microwave source can be tightly synchronized to the output and thereby to the OMO timing signal. This can be done with Cycle’s patented TCBOC (Two Color Balanced Optical Cross-correlator for optical-optical synchronization) or BOMPD (Balanced Optical Microwave Phase Detector, for RF-optical synchronization). Naturally, PULSE has its own control system that fully automates the whole process and logs all critical system performance data, providing 24/7, 365 days sub-femtosecond timing distribution and synchronization with the click of a button.

• Less than 5 fs RMS timing jitter and timing drift

• Modular and expandable system (standard up to 8 fiber links and 10-km length)

• Remote or local control via EPICS

• Automated search and lock mechanism via GUI

• Advanced monitoring and control features

BOMPD allows ultra-precise measurement of timing jitter between an optical pulse train and the phase of a microwave signal.

BOMPD generates a baseband signal that is proportional to the timing error between the two inputs, which in turn can be used in a phase-locked loop configuration to tightly synchronize a laser to a microwave source or vice versa. Due to its balanced detection scheme, the BOMPD is immune to amplitude fluctuations of both optical and microwave sources and greatly suppresses the AM-PM conversion noise in the photodetection process. Cycle offers two additions to the BOMPD to complement our customers’ applications: RF generation option (which includes a low-noise VCO for generating an RF signal based on an optical clock) and low-noise option (down to 5 fs synchronization). Standard optical wavelengths are 800 nm, 1030 nm, and 1550 nm. Please contact one of our timing experts for your customization needs.

More than 0.2 mV/fs sensitivity

• Lower than 5 fs RMS noise floor

• Less than 20 fs RMS timing jitter

• Attosecond-level timing jitter resolution

E-SYNC features advanced phase lock electronics, offering a comprehensive and easy-to-use user interface allowing auto search and lock.

E-SYNC generates a baseband signal that is proportional to the timing error between the two inputs, which in turn can be used in a phase-locked loop configuration to synchronize a laser to a microwave source or vice versa or two microwave sources.

E-SYNC features a wide range of options including precise harmonic lock, laser stepper control, RF regeneration, external reference inputs (10 MHz / 100 MHz / 1 GHz), ECOPS, ASOPS etc.

- Less than 100 fs RMS timing jitter

• Advanced fundamental and harmonic frequency lock functionality

• User adjustable delay between locked oscillators

• Automated search and lock mechanism via GUI