credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
Raydiance, a startup company in Petaluma, California, has developed a laser they say can cleanly cut just about any material you can think of – from human skin to glass – without throwing off heat or damaging the surface.With former AOL CEO Barry Schuler at the helm, the company hopes to sell subscriptions to its tabletop ultrashort pulse lasers, and engender a whole new field of software development.Here, Raydiance execs show Wired News how the laser works.Danny Dumas contributed to this story. Left: Scott Davison, president of Raydiance, positions an articulating arm for laser-beam delivery. The composit image shows this instrument’s arrangement of mirrors and articulated joints, which means scientists can shine a beam into one end and, no matter where the arm swings around in space, the beam emits from the other end.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
Barry Schuler, former CEO of AOL, is now CEO of Raydiance, a company in Petaluma, California, developing ultrashort pulse, or USP, lasers for use in many applications, from medical devices to power tools.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
This test bed is used for determining ablating patterns in different materials. Raydiance calls it a USP-laser micromachining workstation.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
A glass slide is seconds away from being ablated by the Raydiance USP laser.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
Scott Davison secures a chunk of glass with a clamp in front of the USP laser.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
The Raydiance USP laser obliterates molecules from inside the glass chunk.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
Greg Spooner, principle applications engineer at Raydiance, monitors the laser’s performance on a digital display.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
Spooner programs the Raydiance USP laser to make tidy geometric etchings inside the chunk of glass.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
As the laser etches the glass, it gives off a vapor that is analyzed by software and is represented on the chart.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
A monitor displays data on the activities of the Raydiance lasers.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
The Raydiance USP laser, normally invisible to human perception, reacts when shined on this chemically treated card.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
The Raydiance laser is tiny compared to previous versions of the technology, which took up an entire room. Here is some of the circuitry that made it possible.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
Barry Schuler proudly holds a chunk of glass neatly ablated by his company’s USP laser.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
Engineers at Raydiance use this workshop to try to make their device even smaller. Schuler said they call it the "hand job" room (we found that name deceiving).
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
The guts of the Raydiance laser are exposed (seen here from the side) so engineers can work on it.
credit Photo: http://jonathanasnyder.com Jonathan Snyder
Check out a close-up of the focal area for the USP laser.
credit Photo: Courtesy of Raydiance
Ultrashort pulse lasers were once large and unwieldy. The Raydiance version is compact and fits on a tabletop, so it’s potentially useful in medical and emergency settings.
credit Illustration: Courtesy of Raydiance
Raydiance engineers envision that one day their technology will pack into a handheld unit like this one, allowing users to change the function of the laser by simply changing the software.
