Collegiate – Ti:sapphire Laser Kit

for full specifications or with questions

The Collegiate™ ultrafast Ti:sapphire laser kit is the latest installment of the original KMLabs few-cycle oscillators. When it was introduced in 1994, this was the first commercial Ti:sapphire laser capable of generating pulses less than 12 femtoseconds in duration. Since then, as technology has evolved, KMLabs has been proud to continue pushing the boundaries in ultrafast laser science to some of the most challenging and advanced demands in the research field. Through this evolution, as KMLabs has expanded into offering turn-key laser systems, Collegiate endures as a workhorse user-serviceable laser, providing an entry-level Ti:sapphire laser system with state-of-the-art performance appropriate for both educational and research environments.

Supporting the Academic Community for Over 25 Years

• In educational settings, Collegiate offers a high performance ultrafast laser system at an appealing price point. The components are easy to access and provide a foundation for understanding the optical layout and laser operation. Perfect for advanced undergraduate or graduate level instruction.
• Early career or budget-constrained researchers can kickstart their laser lab with a world class, proven research-grade instrument, and use it as the starting block to generate high impact scientific results that will fuel the growth of their research group and career advancement.
• For ultrafast oscillators with custom needs, spare yourself the pain of starting from scratch. Instead, start with the Collegiate Ti:sapphire kit with its complete offering of compatible and tested components, and then modify as needed to meet your specialized requirements.

Applications:

• Undergraduate advanced optics labs
• Frequency conversion into the UV and mid-IR
• Pumping OPOs
• Materials Research
• Femtochemistry
• Spectroscopy
• THz Generation
• Two-photon polymerization
• Seed laser for homemade amplifier system

Publications using Collegiate and TS Kit:

Power and chirp effects on the frequency stability of resonant dispersive waves generated in photonic crystal fibres

Optimization of laser output parameters vs. f-to-2f beating signals can be mutually contradicting, when an octave-spanning supercontinuum is employed for f-to-2f measurements. We show that resonant dispersive waves will solve this issue, thanks to their frequency stability against changes in laser power and chirping.

The authors use a KMLabs Collegiate (85 MHz Ti:Sapphire oscillator) and a 9-cm long Kagome photonic crystal fiber to generate resonant dispersive waves in this experiment. The figure depicts RDW output spectra for different input energies.

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-18544-y

Crimp length decreases in lax tendons due to cytoskeletal tension, but is restored with tensional homeostasis

Multi-photon microscopy excels at imaging of living cells and relies on the intense light generated by ultrafast laser systems. In this work, The authors use a TS laser kit from KMLabs to drive their multiphoton laser-scanning microscope and image the crimp length morphology of tendons. They find that the crimp length of the tendons is under cellular control and is a reflection of the mechanobiological environment of the extracellular matrix.

DOI: 10.1002/jor.23489

Single-beam heterodyne FAST CARS microscopy

In this paper, a KMLabs Ti:Sapphire oscillator kit is incorporated into a home-built FAST CARS (femtosecond adaptive spectroscopic technique for coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering) microscopy experiment. This experiment performs single-beam heterodyne imaging using a simple setup with real-time piezo modulation of the probe delay, and enables high spatial resolution and dynamic measurements. Shown here is the spectrum and spatial map obtained on a MoS2 2D material.

DOI: 10.1364/OE.24.021652

Femtosecond Laser Spectroscopy, Autocorrelation, and Second Harmonic Generation: An Experiment for Undergraduate Students

This excellent paper from Stonehill College describes how the Collegiate Ti:Sapphire oscillator kit from KMLabs is used to elevate students’ learning experience in an undergraduate teaching lab. The experiment pursues four goals:
(1) see the inner-workings of a femtosecond laser,
(2) appreciate the setup of the experiment,
(3) understand the basics of SHG, and
(4) consider applications of lasers.
The authors also provide Experimental Guides for both instructors and students, so the experiment can be easily replicated at other institutions.

DOI: 10.1088/1361-6404/ab07d0