EU project TiSa-TD ( Ultrafast High-average power Ti:Sapphire Thin disk Oscillators and Amplifiers) has been granted and launched in dec 2013.
The main objective of TiSa TD is to demonstrate industrial high-average power ultrafast Ti:sapphire (Ti:Sa) lasers and their application to high-productivity precision micromachining of transparent materials like glass and ceramics. Thin Ti:Sa disks cooled on both faces using transparent diamond heat spreaders will be employed to achieve the targeted high output powers.
The Ti:Sa TD consortium comprises two laser technology research and development centres (Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Strahlwerkzeuge and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique FEMTO-ST), and four industrial partners represented by two SMEs (Oxford Lasers Ltd and M Squared Lasers Ltd) and two large enterprises (Thales Optronique S.A., Element Six Ltd). The consortium is well balanced and provides expertise covering the entire supply chain, from the laser development (Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Strahlwerkzeuge), the laser manufacturing process (Thales Optronique S.A. for the high-energy CPA systems and M Squared Lasers Ltd for the high-repetition rate systems), provider of laser components (Element Six Ltd), to the application development covering both fundamental laser material processing research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) to the actual industrial applications and material processing (Oxford Lasers Ltd).
More info at : http://www.tisa-td.eu