Femtosecond lasers send out pulses at 100X10E-15 seconds. This speed is so fast that materials aren't given enough time to heat up. This causes less distortion in the machined material. The pulses are then amplified and focused using a computer assisted nano stepping motor. Using this technique, interns were able to make images of themselves inside a glass microscope slide by changing the densitie of the material inside the glass.
Interns check the oscilliscope wired to the femtosecond laser.
The oscilliscope measures the spectrum of the laser. Intern Patricia operates the computer that drives the nano-stepping motor. The motor positioned the glass slide for engraving. The beam produced by the ti-sapphire crystal is focused down to mere nanometers. The argon laser used during the experiment is shown.