Physical fundamentals of ultrashort femtosecond lasers are addressed along with emerging
applications for precision manufacturing and metrology. Femtosecond lasers emit short pulses
whose temporal width is in the range of less than a picosecond to a few femtoseconds, thereby
enabling extremely high peak-power machining with less thermal damages. Besides, the broad
spectral bandwidth of femtosecond lasers constructed in the form of frequency comb permits
absolute distance measurements leading to ultraprecision positioning control and dimensional
metrology.