The Centre for Industrial Photonics has announced it is to begin a £350,000 research project funded by the DTI as part of their 'Optoelectronics and Disruptive Electronics Programme'.

The aim of the project is to take advantage of the new developments and capabilities of Ytterbium fibre lasers to create low cost and high performance laser cutting technology.

The project is a collaboration with the University of Southampton and SPI Lasers. The University of Southampton will research and develop mode tunable high power Yb fibre lasers. The Cambridge team aim to produce a high efficiency laser cutting technology based on mode controlled lasers, whilst SPI Lasers will engage in commercialisation and exploitation of the new laser cutting concepts.