It can emit optical pulses every quadrillionth of a second, resulting in a laser beam that can cut with "extreme accuracy".
And now the University of Otago physics department has one.
Fortunately, the cutting-edge laser is not being used for torturing and extracting information from spies.
Instead, it is being used to prepare samples for scientific experiments.
University of Otago physicist and resonant optics group leader Associate Prof Harald Schwefel said the laser’s precision was achieved by directly ionising material within the tiny focal spot of ultra-powerful light while leaving the rest of the material completely unharmed.
It meant samples could be prepared and applied to research across broad areas of science, including health, environmental and physical sciences.
Present projects using the equipment were even advancing technology such as the construction of high-quality optical resonators for measuring ozone in space, and enabling new designs for microwave transduction for connecting superconducting quantum computers — a building block for the quantum internet, he said.
The laser cost more than $500,000 and is the only one of its kind in New Zealand.
Because the technology is so new, the university has taken on postdoctoral researcher Dr Mallika Suresh — who undertook her PhD on femtosecond lasers in Germany — to help install it and teach staff how to use it.
Prof Schwefel said that the physics department was very lucky to have the device.
"It’s great. It opens up so many new possibilities that we otherwise wouldn’t have had before.
"There are many applications that will be enabled by this device.
"It’s also a great tool to train students and get them into precision machining."
