2 micron fiber laser from AdValue Photonics wins R&D 100 Award

June 26, 2012

Tucson, AZ--The 2 micron high-power, mode-locked fiber laser from AdValue Photonics has been selected as a winner of the 2012 R&D 100 Awards.

Gail Overton

Tucson, AZ--The 2 micron high-power mode-locked fiber laser from AdValue Photonics has been selected as a winner of the 2012 R&D 100 Awards. Widely recognized as the "Oscars of Innovation", the R&D 100 Awards identify and celebrate the top 100 high-technology products of the year as defined by R&D Magazine. The AdValue Photonics winner is an all-optical-fiber laser with no free-space components in the optical system, providing advantages in operation stability and reliability. With a 2 micron wavelength, picosecond pulse width, 10 kW peak power, and near-diffraction-limited beam, AdValue Photonics says its fiber laser is a tool for scientists working with nonlinear optics, frequency conversion, spectroscopy, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), and materials studies.

The laser is important for nonlinear frequency conversion and mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelength generation, and the 2 micron wavelength is favorable as a pump laser for mid-IR generation as compared to its counterparts at 1 micron and 1.55 micron. Development of mid-IR lasers and light sources is particularly important for sensing because many molecular species of immense interest have their spectral signatures (fingerprints) in the mid-IR region. Applications encompass many industries from commercial to military, and for applications spanning environmental monitoring, industrial process control, hazardous chemical detection, molecular identification, thermal imaging, antimissile infrared countermeasures (IRCM), materials processing, and medical diagnostics.

AdValue Photonics is a developer and manufacturer of optical-fiber-based lasers, amplifiers, broadband light sources, and passive components. The company says it is focused on producing innovative, high-quality, and cost-effective products by leveraging its proprietary technology and expertise in advanced optical glasses and fibers—optimizing the entire process from chemical batch of raw materials to fiber drawing to assembly of fiber laser systems in house.

SOURCE: AdValue Photonics; http://advaluephotonics.com

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.