Focus on lasers and optics

Intense Ltd has developed passively mounted quasi-continuous-wave bars with power levels in excess of 300 W and has added to its Hermes stacked array line higher-power QCW products, from 1200 to 2000 W. The company’s quantum well intermixing technology increases brightness and reliability and eliminates the problems associated with catastrophic optical mirror damage. In addition, a new “H”-style mounted bar is designed specifically for high-power, high-efficiency, rod-pumping applications and can be used in its standard configuration or fitted with either a slow or fast axis collimator lens. The Hermes family is available in a range of wavelengths suitable for direct diode pumping, illumination, and material processing. The company offers bars and stacked arrays with various macro- and microlenses to integrate drive electronics into higher-level diode modules or packs. Intense Ltd, 1200A Airport Road, North Brunswick, NJ 08902, http://www.intenseco.com

Cobolt AB has introduced two new CW diode-pumped solid-state lasers. The Cobolt Twist, with up to 50-mW output power at 457 nm, provides a compact and power-efficient alternative to the 458-nm line used in argon-ion lasers. It is a single-mode device with a low noise of less than 0.3% rms, a narrow spectral line width of less than 10 MHz, and a high beam quality of M² less than 1.1. The Twist is well suited for demanding fluorescence applications, such as those used in confocal microscopy and for certain reprographics and display uses. The Cobolt Zouk provides 10 mW of output power at a wavelength of 355 nm and with a perfect TEM ₀₀ beam. It offers an alternative to argon- and krypton-ion UV lines and quasi-CW UV lasers and is ideal for applications in flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Cobolt lasers are based on periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate frequency conversion technology. Cobolt AB, Vretenvägen 13, SE-171 54 Solna, Sweden, http://www.cobolt.se

Newport Corp has announced the 5700 series of high-power laser diode drivers that feature CW or pulsed-current mode of operation with the option of either local or remote control. Two of the four models are designed for use with single-bar multiemitter laser diodes and offer 30 A/5 V and 80 A/7.5 V outputs. The other two models, for stacked multibar, multiemitter lasers, use a 3-kW power supply and provide outputs of 100 A/30 V and 150 A/20 V.

The USB 2.0 interface—software drivers are included with the instruments—allows for full light-current-voltage characterization of laser diodes. Comprehensive laser diode protection is provided through transient filtering, intermittent contact protection, independent current limit and power limit settings, and a slow turn-on sequence. When the instruments are powered off, program settings are saved in the nonvolatile memory. Newport Corporation, 1791 Deere Avenue, Irvine, CA 92606, http://www.newport.com

The Libra-HE from Coherent Inc is a one-box ultrafast Ti:sapphire amplifier that delivers significantly higher pulse energy and shorter pulse width than earlier Libra models. The new system produces pulse energies of more than 3.5 mJ at 1 kHz and offers a choice of either 50- or 100-fs pulse width models; it comes with a standard pulse repetition rate of 1 or 5 kHz at 800 nm. The Libra-HE provides improved beam quality with M² less than 1.3 because it uses Coherent’s next-generation E-2 engine-regenerative amplifier design in concert with the high-power capabilities of the company’s Evolution pump platform. That combination results in an output stability of better than 0.5% rms. The high-power and short-pulse width of Libra-HE will be useful for pumping multiple, tunable, optical parametric amplifiers in pump probe experiments and for ultrafast spectroscopy techniques. Coherent Inc, 5100 Patrick Henry Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95054, http://www.coherent.com

Andor’s ALC-UVP-350i is a computer-controlled UV pulsed laser source designed to improve applications involving the microablation of subcellular organelles and molecular uncaging. The source operates at 350 nm with a repetition rate from 1 Hz to 5 kHz and pulse energy up to 60 µJ, variable over more than four decades. UV pulses are delivered over a multimode, 25-µm optical fiber, ensuring safe and convenient coupling to optical microscopes via a dichroic coupler manufactured by Meopta-optika sro. With a spot size down to 2.5 µm and high-aperture objectives, precision targeting can be achieved. The ALC-UVP-350i, a new addition to the company’s Revolution laser-spinning disk confocal system, which allows simultaneous imaging and ablation or uncaging, is designed to help biologists perform more precise microsurgery and optical activation with live cells. Andor Technology PLC, 7 Millennium Way, Springvale Business Park, Belfast BT12 7AL, UK, http://www.andor.com

IMEC is offering a monolithically integrated 11-megapixel micromirror array for high-end industrial applications. Each mirror is 8 µm × 8 µm and can be individually tilted by the high-speed CMOS circuitry underneath the 10 cm² array, which has a pixel density that is almost double that of comparable micromirrors. The mirrors are fabricated on top of foundry high-voltage 0.18-µm CMOS 200-mm wafers with six interconnect levels. A top view of individual mirrors and hinges is shown in the photo. The array was built using the company’s silicon germanium-based MEMS platform. Because of its reliability, polycrystalline SiGe, rather than aluminum, was chosen as structural material for the mirrors. The company has demonstrated that its mirrors show no creep and meet a 10¹² cycles mechanical lifetime. Arrays such as this one are used in, for example, video projection and lithography mask writers. IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium, http://www.imec.be

Teem Photonics has brought together passively Q-switched microchip technology with fiberoptic amplification, resulting in the PicoSpark laser, which produces pulses with energies of hundreds of microjoules at repetition rates of a few tens of kilohertz. The average output power is several watts, with hundreds of kilowatts of peak power. The PQS microchip, the basis of the new laser, sets the pulse width in the hundreds of picoseconds. The master-oscillator fiber-amplifier architecture allows both the pulse width to stay constant and users to vary the pulse energy (or peak power) and the repetition rate independently of each other. The PicoSpark is available at operating wavelengths of either 1064 or 532 nm. With its TEM ₀₀ beam quality and very high irradiance—700 GW/cm² at 25 kHz at 1064 nm—it is ideal for hard materials processing. Teem Photonics Inc, 3594 Nyland Way, Suite TP1 Lafayette, CO 80026, http://www.teemphotonics.com

Sciton has introduced the Joule aesthetic laser platform, which offers a combination of multiple laser wavelengths delivered through any of the device’s three delivery modes—arm, fiber, or broadband light. A single platform can now provide laser-assisted lipolysis, deep and fractional skin resurfacing, hair removal, and a range of vascular treatments. The company calls the technology OptiPlex, the optimal multiplexing of optical technologies. In addition to any combination of the three delivery modes, Joule has four laser bays and a pulsed light bay; for cosmetic procedures, it offers a comprehensive selection of modules and the ability to add future ones. The platform currently has nine modules, including Contour TRL, a 2940-nm laser to administer the company’s MicroLaserPeel procedure; ClearScan, a 1064-nm system to treat pigmented and vascular lesions; and the IR-light SkinTyte accessory to firm tissue. Sciton Inc, 925 Commercial Street, Palo Alto, CA 94303, http://www.sciton.com

Ophir-Spiricon’s BeamGage includes all the accuracy and ISO-approved quantitative results that make the company’s LBA and BeamStar software so successful. The performance of today’s laser systems depends on knowledge of a beam’s size, shape, uniformity or approximation to the expected power distribution, and its divergence and mode content. Ophir-Spiricon’s UltraCal algorithm guarantees the baseline or zero-reference point and is accurate to 1/8 of a digital count on a pixel-by-pixel basis; UltraCal has been enhanced in BeamGage to ensure that accurate spatial measurements are more quickly available. The new system incorporates BeamMaker, which can synthetically generate beam profile data and allows users to model laser beams in various modal configurations. BeamGage can interface with the company’s power meter so that laser power readings can match beam profile data. Ophir-Spiricon Inc, 60 West 1000 North, Logan, UT 84321, http://www.ophir-spiricon.com

Saint-Gobain Crystals has announced a series of harmonic separators, optimized for use with solid-state lasers. The new Alpine Research Optics–brand products are all-dichroic beam splitters for either splitting or combining the various harmonics of Nd:YAG and Nd:YVO ₄ lasers. Both short- and long-wave pass designs are available. Beam splitter coatings are typically supplied on flat substrates with a high-efficiency antireflection coating on the second surface. Near-IR and visible wavelength optics are offered on optical grade fused silica substrates; optics for UV wavelengths are fabricated on UV grade fused silica substrates. Flatness at 633 nm is λ/10, and 10^-5 surface quality is provided. Because of their combination of high-damage threshold and mechanical durability, the optics are useful in demanding applications. Saint-Gobain Crystals, Alpine Research Optics, 6810 Winchester Circle, Boulder, CO 80301, http://www.arocorp.com

The nLight Corp has expanded its Pearl fiber-coupled solid-state laser platforms into wavelengths of 879 to 888 nm with electrical-optical efficiency greater than 50%, producing significantly less heat. Power levels up to 100 W are available at 879, 885, and 888 nm and exploit the company’s 400- or 600-µm PowerCore fiber. When used for upper-state pumping of Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO ₄, Pearl allows the design and manufacture of air-cooled, diode-pumped solid-state laser systems. Pearl’s unique single-emitter architecture helps maintain narrow spectral widths of less than 3.5 nm (full-width at half-maximum). The company’s nXLT diode technology enables Pearl to operate over a long lifespan, even under harsh industrial conditions with repeated on–off cycles. The PowerCore fiber provides consistent beam quality and power transmission independent of fiber layout and movement nLight Corporation, 5408 NE 88th Street, Building E, Vancouver, WA 98665, http://www.nlight.net