Source: Laboratory Talk

    The new Mantis from Coherent is described as a uniquely cost-effective oscillator for short pulse (broadband) ultrafast applications. Specifically, Mantis generates over 300 milliwatts of average power at a nominal centre wavelength of 800nm and has a bandwidth over 70nm, which can be compressed to under 20 femtoseconds using the optional external CPC compact pulse compressor.

    In terms of technological innovation, Mantis is the first ultrafast laser system to incorporate a 5 watt green pump laser based on monolithic OPSL (optically pumped semiconductor laser) technology rather than a traditional DPSS pump.

     (OPSL technology has been widely used in demanding OEM applications such as bio-instrumentation for several years).

    A major application for the Mantis is seeding short pulse amplifier/OPA systems to generate tunable high energy, sub-35 fs pulses for a wide range of pulse-probe experiments in physics and chemistry.

    Typical examples include studies into molecular photodissociation dynamics and power hungry techniques such as fluorescence upconversion.

    Another application area is THz spectroscopy and imaging.

    Here the simple to use Mantis oscillator will generate a wider spectrum of THz radiation, because of the laser¡¯s very short pulsewidth.