ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a class of lasers that has defied scaling. Even today, most commercial femtosecond laser sources are partially "handcrafted" or at least "hand tuned". This facts makes femtosecond lasers expensive and differentiates the lasers from each company by their design and skill at tuning the performance of their laser. However, the transition to scalable femtosecond lasers is now fully underway. The chapter discusses this transition and how, in analogy to electronic integrated circuits, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) will include a shaped femtosecond laser. As with electronics, PICs will lead to a dramatic drop in price for these devices. The modern femtosecond laser systems will take advantage of the adaptive pulse shaper in the femtosecond laser chip for optimization of the final output, even after amplification. The pulse shaper will enable autonomous systems where an artificial intelligence system controls the laser to achieve certain desired goals.
