The Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) laboratory of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has received more than $12 million in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Quebec government to bolster the performance of its infrared lasers. ALLS began upgrading the power of its lasers in early 2020.
With the investment, INRS’ ALLS infrastructure joins the LaserNetUS network, becoming its first Canadian member and joining the network of 10 partner organizations and institutions located in the United States.
The network delivers its members improved access to high-tech facilities, enabling them to conduct research.
In 2020, the Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation (MEI) awarded a $300,000 grant to match LaserNetUS funds and open this infrastructure of the Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Centre to national and international users. In October, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $18 million in funding distributed among partner institutions in the large LaserNetUS network.
Pierre Fitzgibbon, minister of the economy and innovation, lauded INRS for providing access to its facilities, noting the importance of collaboration in advancing scientific development.
Since the facility was opened in 2005, ALLS has welcomed more than 100 scientists from Canada and abroad.
This fall, a separate INRS research team working at ALLS observed high-energy multidimensional solitary states, enabling the direct generation of extremely short and intense laser pulses. Those pulses, highly stable in time and space, support forthcoming industrial applications, including those in micromachining and material processing.