Laser that once occupied an entire laboratory now fits on a tiny chip and delivers 147 femtosecond pulses, paving the way for portable atomic clocks, medical diagnostics, and high-precision sensors.

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 09/06/2026 at 17:30

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Published in Nature by researchers led by EPFL, the advancement integrates a laboratory-level ultrafast laser into a photonic chip, with 147 femtosecond pulses and energy of up to 1.05 nanojoule, reducing a technology previously associated with large and expensive systems

An ultrafast laser that previously required entire optical tables in a laboratory has been integrated into a photonic chip, with 147 femtosecond pulses and energy of up to 1.05 nanojoule.

Ultrafast laser leaves the laboratory and arrives on the chip

The advancement was reported in the journal Nature by researchers led by Professor Tobias J. Kippenberg from EPFL. The team claims to have developed the first integrated ultrafast laser capable of matching the performance of traditional femtosecond systems used on benches.

Ultrafast lasers produce light pulses lasting only a few hundred femtoseconds. Each femtosecond corresponds to one quadrillionth of a second, an essential scale for high-precision technologies.

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How the photonic chip manipulates light

Photonic chips control light through microscopic waveguides patterned on a wafer. The logic is similar to that of electronic chips, but instead of electrical currents, these structures direct light beams.

This platform is already used in telecommunications and has helped reduce the size of optical technologies previously dependent on larger equipment. The new device extends this trajectory by bringing a high-energy femtosecond laser to a very small area.

The laser cavity is 42 centimeters long but can be folded into a chip with an area approximately the size of a match head. The result is much smaller than conventional ultrafast systems based on fiber.

Little-used design solved part of the challenge

To enable the device, the team adopted the Mamyshev oscillator, a rarely used architecture. The cavity combines a nonlinear waveguide between two optical filters that select different parts of the light spectrum.

When a strong pulse passes through the guide, its spectrum broadens and allows part of the light to pass through the filters, continuing to circulate. The weaker light does not broaden enough and ends up being filtered out.

The design also reduces problems caused by nonlinear interactions in very small guides. This feature makes the architecture suitable for integrated photonic devices.

Possible uses of the new laser

As photonic chips can be manufactured at the wafer level, more than 1,000 laser cavities could come from a single batch, reducing costs and increasing access.

The technology can support sensing, spectroscopy, precision measurement, pollutant detection, defect identification in materials, medical diagnostics, and portable optical atomic clocks.

What do you think of this advancement? Comment if technologies of this type seem more important for medicine, industry, environment, or navigation, and share which applications of ultrafast lasers should receive priority in the coming years.

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Laser that once occupied an entire laboratory now fits on a tiny chip and delivers 147 femtosecond pulses, paving the way for portable atomic clocks, medical diagnostics, and high-precision sensors.

Published in Nature by researchers led by EPFL, the advancement integrates a laboratory-level ultrafast laser into a photonic chip, with 147 femtosecond pulses and energy of up to 1.05 nanojoule, reducing a technology previously associated with large and expensive systems

Ultrafast laser leaves the laboratory and arrives on the chip

How the photonic chip manipulates light

Little-used design solved part of the challenge

Possible uses of the new laser

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Laser that once occupied an entire laboratory now fits on a tiny chip and delivers 147 femtosecond pulses, paving the way for portable atomic clocks, medical diagnostics, and high-precision sensors.

Published in Nature by researchers led by EPFL, the advancement integrates a laboratory-level ultrafast laser into a photonic chip, with 147 femtosecond pulses and energy of up to 1.05 nanojoule, reducing a technology previously associated with large and expensive systems

Ultrafast laser leaves the laboratory and arrives on the chip

How the photonic chip manipulates light

Little-used design solved part of the challenge

Possible uses of the new laser

Dissatisfied with seeing people sleeping on the street, a man named Ryan Donais started building small mobile homes so that homeless people can escape the cold, each equipped with a bed, running water, electricity, and heating.

Workers were opening a modern road in Dover when they found, 6 meters below the asphalt, a 3,500-year-old boat made of stitched oak and plant fibers.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

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