Chinese Academy of Engineering Report: Research on the Development Strategy of Laser Technology and Application in my country by 2035

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the invention of laser. Since its advent, laser technology has brought about earth-shaking changes in our lives and production. In order to promote the application and popularization of laser technology, the Chinese Academy of Engineering launched the key consulting project "Research on the Development Strategy of Laser Technology and Application in my country in 2035" in 2018. This article is a comprehensive report on the project research. The article briefly analyzes the instrumental, leading and subversive role of laser technology and its role in scientific research and industry, and puts forward the development goals and policy measures for laser technology and application in my country in 2035.

1. Introduction

Laser is one of the four major scientific and technological inventions of the 20th century, along with atomic energy, semiconductors and computers. Laser has the characteristics of high brightness, strong directionality, good monochromaticity and good coherence. It is called "the fastest knife", "the most accurate ruler" and "the brightest light". The development and integration of laser and related technologies have formed cross-disciplinary technical disciplines such as laser manufacturing, laser communication, laser detection and laser medical treatment, providing a large number of new tools for human beings to understand and transform the world, nurturing and developing various types of laser industries and series of equipment, and changing and reconstructing many fields such as high-end manufacturing, information communication, medical diagnosis and treatment, and national defense and security. With the continuous emergence of new lasers and new laser applications, the role of laser technology will become more prominent and will play an important role in building an innovative country and enhancing international industrial competitiveness.

The Chinese Academy of Engineering organized and carried out a key consulting research project on "Research on the Development Strategy of Laser Technology and Application in my country by 2035". It focused on proposing my country's development goals, key research priorities and industrial policy needs before 2035.

Laser Technology

"Light is an indispensable element of our daily life. Science's understanding and application of this natural phenomenon of light benefits all mankind. Light is primary. It is because of light that the world can appear before our eyes. Because light is so important, the care for light is deeply rooted in all civilizations."

- Excerpt from the speech of Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the International Day of Light in 2020! !
God said, let there be light, and there was light! (Genesis, Old Testament of the Bible)

Maiman said, I have a laser!
God said, please give it to mankind!
Maiman said, of course!
Mankind said, thank you!

Note: As natural scientists, we should not talk about God when we open our mouths, but it is okay to think critically about God. As a member of the human race, I feel more and more that the God we call is actually a synonym for the whole human race, that is, if we replace God with mankind, the above dialogue still holds true, or we can say that God is a spokesperson for mankind.

II. The role and status of laser technology and its applications

(I) Frontier laser technology is an important tool for basic physics research and cutting-edge scientific research in multiple fields

Researching cutting-edge laser technology and obtaining higher frequency domain characteristics (ultra-short wave, ultra-long wave, tunable, single frequency, wide spectrum, etc.), time domain characteristics (ultra-fast, ultra-strong peak, etc.) and energy domain characteristics (high brightness, high power, high energy, etc.) have always been an important part of the world's cutting-edge scientific research.

High-performance lasers can create extreme conditions in the laboratory, making high-performance frontier lasers an important tool for basic physics research.

The frequency domain characteristics, time domain characteristics and energy domain characteristics or parameters created by high-performance lasers make lasers an indispensable tool for cutting-edge research in new materials, energy, biology and other scientific and technological fields.

Throughout the 100-year history of the Nobel Prize, there are more than 40 award-winning achievements directly or indirectly related to optics, accounting for about 40% of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among them, after 1960, almost all Nobel Prizes related to optics are more or less related to lasers. The following are some of the more famous ones.

1964 Nobel Prize in Physics The earliest Nobel Prize for lasers
Winners: Charles Townes (USA), Nikolai Gennadievich Basov (former Soviet Union), Alexander Prokhorov (former Soviet Union)
Reason for winning: Basic research results in the field of quantum electronics, which developed oscillators and amplifiers based on the principle of laser microwave-laser

Based on this research result, scientists created the predecessor of lasers, the microwave maser, in 1954. Thereafter, based on the open resonant cavity configuration of microwaves, scientists developed lasers in 1960.

1971 Nobel Prize in Physics Constructing three-dimensional realistic stereograms
Winner: Gabor Dennis (UK)
Reason for winning: Invented and developed holography

With the advent of lasers, the coherence and brightness of light sources have been significantly improved, and holographic technology has developed rapidly. The principle of holographic technology is to use the interference and diffraction of light to store the information of an object in the form of an interference pattern, and restore the three-dimensional realistic stereogram of the original object through image inversion. This technology is widely used in science fiction movies, such as the holographic sandbox display in "Avatar" and the suspended projection in "Iron Man". Today, the rapid development of computer technology has given rise to holographic projection technology. For example, Microsoft developed Hololens in 2015 based on computational holography technology, which can generate virtual 3D images that only the wearer can see.

1981 Nobel Prize in Physics Laser Spectrometer with Sensitive Detection

Winners: Nicholas Blombergen (USA), Arthur Schawlow (USA)

Reason for the award: Contribution to the development of laser spectrometers

After the advent of lasers, the study of nonlinear media and laser spectra has become a hot topic. Blombergen's invention of optical frequency doubling, pulse compression broadening, electro-optical modulation and other technologies and devices based on nonlinear optical principles are indispensable in the fields of high-power lasers and laser communications.

1997 Nobel Prize in Physics Freezing atoms to capture the "fifth state"
Winners: Steven Chu (USA), Claude Cohen-Tannoudge (France), William Phillips (USA)
Reason for winning: Developed a method to cool and capture atoms with lasers

Laser cooling technology is to slow down atoms by colliding laser photons with moving atoms, thereby obtaining ultra-low temperature atoms. Using this technology, scientists observed the fifth state of matter for the first time - Bose-Einstein condensate.

1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Filming molecular changes at the femtosecond level
Winners: Ahmed Xavier (Egypt, USA)
Reason for winning: Using laser technology, it is possible to observe the movement of atoms in molecules through chemical reactions
Xavier is known as the "father of femtosecond chemistry". He used femtosecond laser technology to observe in chemical reactions. This is also the first time that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to the laser field. Due to the emergence of femtosecond ultrashort pulse lasers, the time scale of observable chemical reactions has been reduced to the femtosecond level. Xavier used this technology to measure the reaction transition lifetime of cyclobutane cracking experiment to be 700 femtoseconds, and observed the change process of chemical reaction transition state for the first time in the photolysis reaction of NaI.

2009 Nobel Prize in Physics Optical fiber brings epoch-making changes in communication

Winner: Gao Kun (UK, USA)

Reason for winning: Breakthrough achievement in optical fiber transmission in the field of optical communication

Based on Gao Kun's theory and laser, Corning has developed optical fiber that can be used for communication since the 1970s, which has become the mainstream high-speed, large-capacity wired communication method.

2018 Nobel Prize in Physics "Thousand-fold Magnification" and "Laser Tweezers"
Winners: Arthur Ashkin (USA), Gerard Moreau (France), Donna Strickland (Canada)
Reasons for the award: Breakthrough inventions in the field of laser physics: "Optical tweezers and their application in biological systems" and "Methods for generating high-intensity ultrashort optical pulses"

(II) Laser technology plays an indispensable role in shaping modern manufacturing, information, medical and defense industries

Laser manufacturing applications are the main direction of laser industry applications, including five categories: removal and connection, surface engineering, additive manufacturing, repair and remanufacturing, and micro-nano manufacturing. The output value accounts for more than 30% of the laser application industry. Laser manufacturing has outstanding advantages such as easy operation, non-contact, high flexibility, high efficiency, high quality, energy saving and environmental protection. It is the mainstream means of cutting, welding, surface treatment, high-performance complex component manufacturing and precision manufacturing. It is known as the "universal processing tool" and "the common processing method of future manufacturing systems". It has led the development of advanced manufacturing and has a profound impact on the process of industrial intelligence. According to the analysis and statistics of the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the United States in 2010, the output value of laser remanufacturing was about 7.50 trillion US dollars, which was 50% of the GDP of the United States that year. This is the data of the United States in 2010. Now it is 2020. It can be seen that the space for the application and development of lasers is extremely broad.

Taking laser remanufacturing as an example, according to incomplete statistics, there are about 40-50 civilian enterprises engaged in laser remanufacturing in my country. The large-scale enterprises have a scale of only hundreds of millions of yuan, while the small ones are less than 10 million yuan. The output value of laser remanufacturing in my country exceeded 2.5 billion yuan throughout the year, and the core products of various industries were worth hundreds of billions of yuan, which reduced the losses of many important industries in my country. But this figure is very disproportionate to my country's status as the world's largest manufacturing plant. As the world's largest remanufacturing industry country, the United States has a remanufacturing scale of more than 100 billion US dollars, 75,000 remanufacturing enterprises, and more than 500,000 employees (data from 2017). From the perspective of industrial output value, assuming that my country's remanufacturing industry accounts for 0.2% of GDP, the output value of my country's remanufacturing industry will exceed 127.293 billion yuan in 2015 and 144.7 billion yuan in 2016. This shows how much room there is for development in my country.

Laser technology is the supporting technology of the modern information industry. Optical fiber communication is an indispensable material basis for high-speed Internet; wireless optical communication technology is the only way to achieve rapid transmission of massive information over long distances, and is also the main way for high-speed and massive data transmission and exchange within and between giant computers, large supercomputing centers, fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G) base stations and 5G data centers; optical storage is the main way to store massive big data information; high-definition laser display technology will trigger "a revolution in the history of human vision". "After seeing thousands of sails, laser display is still the most beautiful." In addition, laser technology is also an important foundation for high-precision measurement sensing, unmanned driving and quantum communication.

Laser technology has become an irreplaceable type of technical means in the field of medical treatment and diagnosis.

In the field of national defense, lasers have been used in ranging, imaging, pointing, guidance, communication and confrontation, etc., which have improved the performance of weapons and equipment, such as improving hit rate and reliability, and in a sense, have also changed the face of modern warfare. In recent years, high-energy laser weapons that directly use laser energy to kill targets have been close to maturity and will gradually enter the stage of development and deployment of various application equipment. Influenced by the rapid expansion of small drone applications, low-altitude defense laser systems have developed rapidly as an indispensable means of security for important places and major events in peacetime.

(III) Accelerating the development of laser technology and applications can effectively promote and lead the transformation and upgrading of economic industries

The wide application and continuous expansion of laser technology show that this is an extremely important core key technology, basic technology and leading technology, which effectively promotes and leads the development and transformation and upgrading of economic industries.

First, laser technology is an important tool technology, and its application can accelerate the change of the face of related industries. The application and expansion of lasers in the manufacturing industry, information communication industry and medical industry illustrate this point.

Second, laser technology is a basic technology with extremely strong penetration. The economic scale supported by laser products is far greater than the economic scale itself. A 2010 study by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy pointed out that the total value of telecommunications, e-commerce and information technology in the United States from 2009 to 2010 was $4 trillion, of which the value of lasers themselves was only $3.2 billion (semiconductor and fiber lasers). From another perspective, the importance of laser technology products in the economic system far exceeds the value scale of the products themselves.

Third, laser technology has a strong ability to breed and incubate new applications, and can continuously integrate with other technologies to create new applications and new industries, with outstanding industry-leading characteristics. 5G base station construction has become a popular investment direction. This year, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Tower have successively announced their 5G investment plans for 2020, with a total investment of about 200 billion yuan. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, by 2025, the cumulative investment in 5G network construction will reach 1.2 trillion yuan, and it will drive the investment in upstream and downstream of the industrial chain and various industries to exceed 3.5 trillion yuan. In addition, the maturity of laser display technology is about to give birth to a trillion-level industry scale. According to statistics, in 2018, China's annual TV production reached 170 million units, with an output value of more than 600 billion yuan, and the output value of the TV industry chain exceeded one trillion yuan. It has long become the world's largest color TV manufacturing center and the largest consumer market.

With the advent of 5G, laser makes ideals come true!

This is why the fifth-generation mobile wireless communication technology is so eye-catching. Everyone's 5G is so different:

For ordinary people, 5G is faster Internet speed;
For communication designers, 5G is new coding and new standards;
For antenna engineers, it is higher frequency and more antennas;
For strategists, 5G is our application of the two theorems close to the limit.
The future is uncertain, and this is the confusion of entering the lost path. We need new theories to solve the problems of large traffic and low latency.

We need higher processing accuracy, higher performance materials, denser circuits and newer processing methods. Laser, of course, is laser. As another important invention of the 20th century, shorter wavelength and short pulse lasers bring higher accuracy. The processing accuracy of femtosecond lasers has entered the single-digit micron level. In fact, for mobile communications and high-frequency industries, short-pulse lasers have already been successfully applied in many scenarios. These applications will not only continue in the 5G era, but also have huge imagination and development space. Let us wait and see.

III. Analysis of the current status of laser technology and application development in my country

(I) The main forces of laser technology research in my country are concentrated in research institutes and universities, while enterprises are relatively weak
Research institutes and universities are the main forces in the scientific and technological research of laser systems in my country

Universities and research institutes have undertaken most of the laser research projects planned by the state, and enterprises account for a very small proportion. With the support of the National Key R&D Program for Laser Manufacturing and Additive Manufacturing, this situation has changed.

In comparison, Chinese enterprises are relatively weak in laser research and development, and have received relatively little funding from national science and technology programs. Taking Caterpillar, a well-known remanufacturing company, as an example, its revenue in fiscal year 2014 was US$55.184 billion, and its R&D expenses reached US$2.2 billion. Only Huawei has relatively high R&D expenses in my country, exceeding 100 billion yuan per year. On the one hand, this reflects that the scientific research strength and foundation of Chinese enterprises are relatively weak, and they cannot compete with universities and research institutes; on the other hand, it also shows that the current laser field funding projects are relatively few from the forefront of the industry, the problems are relatively basic, the risks are relatively large, the connection with the industry is weak, and enterprises are not very interested. In addition, there is a gap in the scientific research strength of our country's laser enterprises compared with foreign companies such as Coherent, Trumpf and IPG. At the same time, there is also a lack of cooperation and exchanges between our research institutes and enterprises in the early stage. It is also related that we currently do not have an institution similar to and comparable to the German Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology. This aspect is gradually improving in recent years.

(II) my country's laser research covers a wide range, but the overall technical level is not high enough

In the field of cutting-edge research, new semiconductor lasers, ultrafast and ultra-strong lasers, deep/extreme ultraviolet lasers, high-energy solid lasers and free electron lasers are the main directions, with the following characteristics: First, they have higher performance than ordinary lasers in terms of frequency domain characteristics (ultra-short wave, ultra-long wave, tunable, single frequency, wide spectrum, etc.), time domain characteristics (ultra-fast, ultra-strong peak, etc.) and energy domain characteristics (high brightness, high power, high energy, etc.) that reflect the essence of lasers; second, they have important application needs, and the current performance is still far from the application needs; third, they indicate important development trends and directions of laser technology (often including the discovery and invention of new materials, new structures, new principles, and new systems). Cutting-edge laser technology is one of the key technologies related to occupying the strategic commanding heights of future science and technology, and is the focus of fierce competition among countries in the world. At present, my country's science and technology plans have certain planning layouts and support for the above-mentioned cutting-edge laser technology directions. Generally speaking, most research directions have a certain gap with the world's advanced directions.

In the field of intelligent manufacturing, my country's laser manufacturing has become one of the fastest-growing directions in the field of advanced manufacturing in the past decade, but most technologies are still at the stage of tracking foreign advanced levels.

In the field of information, in line with the leading development of my country's mobile communications and data communications markets, my country's optical fiber communications research and industrial development have reached the world's advanced level.

In the medical field, basic research and technological innovation in laser medicine have grown rapidly in recent years.

The road ahead is long and arduous. my country still has a long way to go to realize the industrialization and commercialization of lasers in the future. There are still many key technologies to be solved. my country's laser industry will continue to develop rapidly. With the reality of the long-term and complex situation of the Sino-US trade war, it is inevitable to abandon illusions and take the path of self-reliance and localization.

(IV) my country's laser application industry faces a series of constraints in its faster and better development

(1) There is a lack of institutional top-level planning and long-term planning.

(2) There is insufficient basic research to support the development of the laser industry (such as new mechanisms, new mechanisms, and new processes to support the development of new products), resulting in a scarcity of original laser industries.

(3) Insufficient supply of key common technologies.

(4) Insufficient collaborative innovation of "industry, academia, research and application".

(5) Industrial development policies need to be strengthened.

(6) Insufficient coverage of professional talent training.

IV. Thoughts on the Development Goals of Laser Technology and Applications in my country by 2035

(I) Guiding Ideology

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, with the fundamental principle of serving the realization of the "Two Centenary Goals", and with the core of enhancing the ability of laser science and technology and industry to support overall national security, we will focus on strengthening top-level planning, solving the management system and mechanism constraints that restrict laser technology innovation and high-quality industrial development, and the problem of independent control of key core technologies, and strive to cultivate emerging laser application industries, accelerate the high-quality development of laser technology and application industries in my country, and achieve a historic leap in laser technology and industry in my country.

(II) Overall Goal

By 2035, the overall level and research capabilities of laser technology and applications in my country will be significantly improved, the frontier technology, application technology and industrialization levels will be generally balanced, the technical level in major fields will reach the world's advanced level, and the major laser industry fields will reach the same level as advanced countries, effectively supporting my country's innovation-driven and sustainable development, and creating greater economic and social benefits.

(1) Breakthroughs in frontier laser technologies such as ultra-high brightness, ultra-short pulses and single-frequency ultra-stable lasers, and play a supporting role in basic physics research such as astronomy.

(2) Build a number of major laser devices (such as ultrashort and ultra-strong, XFEL, THz-FEL devices, etc.) to support basic research in materials, biology, energy, etc., and consolidate the potential for my country's scientific and technological development. my country has built five major laser devices: Shanghai Ultra-Strong Ultra-Short Laser Experimental Device, Shenguang II Laser Device, Shenguang III Laser Device, Shanghai Soft X-ray Laser Device, and Dalian Extreme Ultraviolet Coherent Light Source.

(3) Independently break through key bottleneck products such as laser semiconductor chips, achieve independent control of the core foundation of the industry, and ensure economic security.

(4) Develop new lasers such as new semiconductor lasers, develop basic research on the mechanism and process of new laser applications, create new industries, effectively support and promote the development of emerging industries such as 5G, big data, cloud computing, quantum technology, and unmanned driving, and play a leading role in development.

(5) The technical level and industrial scale of lasers in the fields of intelligent manufacturing and information have reached the world's advanced level, effectively supporting the transformation and upgrading of my country's manufacturing industry.

(6) Serve the Healthy China strategy, continue to expand medical diagnosis applications, and enhance the ability of laser medical equipment to meet the high-end market.

(7) Actively develop national defense and security applications to meet national needs.

(III) Field goals

In the frontier field, by 2035, the overall level and research capabilities of my country's frontier laser technology research such as semiconductor lasers, high-energy solid lasers, ultrafast and ultra-strong lasers, deep/extreme ultraviolet lasers and free electron lasers will be significantly improved, a series of core technology breakthroughs will be achieved, and a number of major laser scientific research facilities will be built, realizing the transformation of my country's frontier laser technology from following and running side by side to leading, supporting and promoting the development of my country's basic scientific research and frontier application technology.

In the field of intelligent manufacturing, a number of original results will be achieved in basic research by 2035;

In the field of information, my country's laser information technology and industry will be in a world-leading position by 2035.

In the medical field, the goal by 2035 is to establish laser medical system evaluation standards and improve the ecological environment of medical lasers and the entire laser industry.

V. Suggestions for measures to accelerate the development of my country's laser technology and applications

(1) Strengthen top-level overall planning and lead the rapid development of my country's laser technology and application industry.
(2) Strengthen basic research, focus on breaking through major basic problems and core basic materials and devices in industrial development, strive to build an independent and controllable industry common technology foundation, and lay a solid foundation for sustainable development.
(3) Implement a number of application research and development projects, increase industry support policies, and create multiple new laser industry chains.
(4) Innovate industry coordination mechanisms and improve the laser industry innovation ecology. For example, give full play to the role of industry associations, industry alliances and other industry groups in industry planning, the proposal and research and development of industry common technical issues, and the formulation of industry standards and specifications.
(5) Strengthen basic laser education and increase the training of laser and optical application talents.

VI. Conclusion

2020 marks the 60th anniversary of the invention of the laser. The development of laser technology and applications has greatly changed the world. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China set the strategic goal of basically achieving socialist modernization and becoming one of the leading innovative countries by 2035. This has brought unprecedented development opportunities for laser technology and applications, and also put forward high standards for the development of laser technology and applications. We must fully understand the role and potential of laser technology and applications, recognize the difficulties and challenges that restrict development, strengthen overall planning, break through various constraints with the fearless spirit and courage of reform, adhere to independent innovation and open innovation, adhere to application and industry as the goal, strengthen laser technology research, improve the laser industry innovation ecology, actively seize the commanding heights of international competition, and contribute to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

This article is selected from the Chinese Academy of Engineering Journal "China Engineering Science" 2020 Issue 3