Ultrafast Pockels laser

Microresonators with a high quality factor have enabled the development of frequency-agile, low-noise lasers, desired for applications such as sensing, communication and quantum information processing. However, their performance limits their practical use. Now, Anat Siddharth and colleagues have developed a compact Pockels laser with enhanced output power and frequency tuning range, rate as well as efficiency for practical applications (Nat. Photon. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01687-0; 2025).

The team validated the laser’s practical performance through two key demonstrations. First, they employed the laser in frequency-modulated continuous-wave LiDAR (light detection and ranging) — a remote sensing method that uses light to detect objects by measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver — to achieve below 5 cm distance resolution. Second, they used the laser to measure the absorption line of hydrogen cyanide to test its application in high-resolution atmospheric gas sensing. Siddharth and colleagues found that the measured linewidth of the absorption peak was consistent with the simulated one.