Collimators
Off-axis beam collimators have a surface accuracy better than λ/10 p-v, producing no central obscuration and obtaining efficient transmission. The lens assemblies can be used to replicate a target at infinity without parallax. They can be used to calibrate optical devices, check alignment, and set proper focus.
Optical Surfaces, Kerry, Surrey, England
[email protected]
Beam-delivery mirrors
The B-Max series mirrors support Ti:sapphire systems with pulse widths of 10 fs or less, providing better than 99.8% reflectivity from 735 to 880 nm. The E-Max high reflectors operate over the 770 to 840 nm range for systems in which high pulse energy damage threshold is a primary concern. Both thin-film coatings minimize group velocity and third-order dispersion.
Saint-Gobain Crystals, Boulder, CO
www.saint-gobain.com
Pulse shaping and measurement
The DazScope is an 800 nm pulse-optimization sytem used in CPA lasers to automatically minimize and stabilize the amplified pulse duration. The Phazzler is a full-pulse measurement system, with autocorrelation, FROG, XFROG, and single-shot SPIDER measurements. Both are based on the Dazzler inline acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter.
Fastlite, Paris, France
www.fastlite.com
UV laser
The Q304-HD ultraviolet laser is based on the company’s Q series UV platform and provides more than 11 W of power at 355 nm. It has beam quality M2 better than 1.2, with near instantaneous power control. It is designed for micromachining applications such as drilling, wafer cutting or singulation, and solar-cell processing.
JDSU, Milpitas, CA
[email protected]
Temperature-stabilized laser
The ColdRay laser is a temperature-stabilized device, available in wavelengths from 375 to 830 nm. The high-output laser can project either a violet or red beam, suited for bioinstrumentation applications. The unit’s thermoelectrical system maintains a constant laser-diode temperature, allowing use in applications requiring consistent temperature.
StockerYale, Montreal, Quebec
[email protected]
Optical polishing system
The Q22-2000F is designed to automate the final steps of optical polishing and figuring for large monolithic or light-weighted optics up to two meters in size. The system can polish a wide range of geometries including planos, spheres, aspheres, freeforms, prisms, and cylinders.
QED Technologies, Rochester, NY
[email protected]
NIR lens spectrograph
Designed for Raman and fluorescence applications that require high throughput, the LS 785 NIR lens spectrograph features include gold-coated gratings and a tunable center wavelength for laser excitations at 785, 805 or 830 nm. A proprietary lens design with 94% transmission through the combined lens sets and 65% total system throughput has also been added.
Princeton Instruments, Trenton, NJ
www.princetoninstruments.com
High-power laser diodes
The LDX family of multimode laser diodes adds devices at 1120, 1460 and 1550 nm. The high-power, single-emitter devices produce output powers of 3 W and 6 W from a 95 µm emitter at 1460 and 1550 nm. Output powers of 1.2 W 2.5 W and 4.0 W are produced for the 1120 nm device. They are available in a standard C-mount package.
RPMC Lasers, O’Fallon, MO
[email protected]
100 kHz digital joulemeter
The Mach 5 digital joulemeter is designed to measure laser pulse energy at more than 100,000 pps with 12-bit accuracy. It can capture and store up to 4 million pulses. The model M5-SJ and M5-PJ joulemeter probes interface to the system, which is accurate to ±4% and is NIST traceable. A USB 2.0 full-speed interface and LabView Applications Software are included.
Spectrum Detector, Lake Oswego, OR
[email protected]
Fiber laser
The R4 fiber laser offers optical output powers of up to 200 W air-cooled or 400 W water-cooled. The laser’s average output power can be reduced down to more than 1% of the maximum rated power. Other features include pulse shape equalization, a modulation rate of up to 100 kHz and either single-mode or multimode output beam configurations.
SPI Lasers, Southampton, England
www.spilasers.com
Large interferometer
The FizCam 2000 is a Fizeau interferometer with a 300 mm aperture for measurement of large-diameter, flat optics. The device uses dynamic interferometry to acquire all measurement data in less than 1 ms, making measurements insensitive to vibration and air turbulence so that it can be used in difficult environments.
4D Technology, Tucson, AZ
[email protected]
Pump diode
The AM6-976E series of 976 nm, 10 W, uncooled pump laser diodes are designed for industrial fiber laser applications, including pulsed lasers and fiber amplification systems. The diode includes a thermistor for temperature monitoring, comes in a 6-pin package, and includes either high-brightness 105 µm, 0.15 NA fiber or 105 µm, 0.22 NA fiber.
Alfalight, Madison, WI
www.alfalight.com
Security frame grabber
The PC_EYE/JPG is a 16-channel PCI express frame grabber for security applications that use low-cost color cameras. It includes on-board JPEG compression hardware for 16 channels, an on-board scaling device, and a fast PCI express bus interface with bandwidth of 250 MByte/s. Each of 16 parallel inputs contains a separate A/D converter.
American ELTEC, Las Vegas, NV
[email protected]
Wavefront sensor
The Smart Sensor is a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with a dedicated processor to execute the intensive computations needed to measure a rapidly changing wavefront, generate control signals for an adaptive optics element, or record wavefront data for high-speed metrology. The device processes raw data on the sensor and sends it at up to 500 frames/s via a USB 2.0 connection.
AMO WaveFront Sciences, Albuquerque, NM
www.wavefrontsciences.com
Raman spectrometer
A 1064 nm Raman spectrometer is designed for the biomedical market. The wavelength reduces biofluorescence while the Raman signal remains high. The system uses a fiber laser with up to 400 mW of output power, with built-in bandpass and blocking filters. The f/2, volume-phase transmission grating is designed to capture five times more light than reflective grating spectrographs.
BaySpec. Fremont, CA
[email protected]
Idustrial diode modules
Ruggedized, heavy-duty laser-diode modules are designed to withstand demanding conditions for use in metal-forming equipment, punch presses, and heavy-duty saws. Each has output power of 5 mW, at 650 nm for Model ML301HD and 532 nm for Model MIL301HD. The dot pattern beam is standard, with cross-hair, target, and line-beam options available.
Bea Laser, Elk Grove Village, IL
[email protected]
Image-analysis software
Version 4.7 of AxioVision image-analysis software contains an enhanced topology module that improves surface roughness and height measurements. The roughness values from unfiltered primary profiles, highpass-filtered roughness profiles, and lowpass-filtered waviness profiles can be determined and an unlimited number of profile lines drawn and compared to the image.
Carl Zeiss, Hertfordshire, England
[email protected]
Vision sensors
The Checker 252 vision sensor includes software sensors that verify height, width, and diameter, and deliver pass/fail results on high-speed production lines. A one-click set-up feature automatically sets maximum and minimum thresholds and learns edge polarity. The device is available with the company’s SensorView 350 industrial panel-mount display.
Cognex, Natick, MA
www.cognex.com
Mircospectrometers
Microspectrometers are available for the development and analysis of surface-plasmon resonance sensors. The instruments can measure the spectral characteristics of plasmons that are excited by ultraviolet, visible, or near-infrared light, and can work at a micron scale. They can monitor surface reflectance, transmission through a film, or fluorescent emission.
Craic Technologies, San Dimas, CA
[email protected]
Optical calculators
Two optical calculators are available for the iPhone. OpticsCalc performs common optical calculations such as paraxial thick lens, ray deviations due to prism refraction, and Snell’s law. Crossed Cylinders computes the spherical and cylindrical power resulting from the combination of two cylindrical optics. Both are available at the iPhone app store.
Diffraction Limited DesignSouthington, CT
[email protected]
White LED
The DomiLED DDW-NJG high-intensity white LED has an operating current of 20 mA and can deliver output of 1000 mcd. It measures 3.2 × 2.8 × 18 mm in a silicone encapsulation that provides long life and low thermal resistance. It is designed for lighting applications in tight spaces, including dashboard lighting, backlighting, and channel lighting.
Dominant Semiconductors, Melaka, Malaysia
www.dominant-semi.com
Interference filters
Narrow-laser-line interference filters offer a bandwidth of 1 nm, for systems needing an extremely narrow bandpass. They provide transmission of more than 50% and OD better than 4. They are available for wavelengths of 488, 514.5, 532, 632.8, and 1064 nm. Each filter is mounted in a 12.7- or 24.5-mm-diameter metal ring for integration using the company’s C-mounts.
Edmund Optics, Barrington, NJ
[email protected]
Fizeau interferometer
The Z100 Fizeau interferometer with 4 in. aperture is available in a choice of wavelengths, including 405, 542, 632.8, 1053, 1064, 1313, and 1550 nm. Reference optics for all wavelengths are available. The device can be configured for static or phase-shifting interferometry and can obtain accuracies of λ/100 and rms repeatabilities of λ/2000.
Engineering Synthesis DesignTucson, AZ
[email protected]
Supercontinuum source
The SC500-FC quasi-continuous-wave supercontinuum fiber-laser source provides more than 0.25 W average power through a single-mode fiber that can be spliced or connected to any system under test. It offers a repetition rate up to 20 MHz and brightness of more than 100 µW/nm, as well as submillisecond rise and fall times.
Fianium, Eugene, OR
[email protected]
Radiometer/photometer
The P-9802 Optometer can handle up to 36 light detectors for radiometric or photometric applications. The device provides fully automated data processing and remote-control operation via a PC through its R#232 interface. Included software will read out data and transfer it to spreadsheet programs.
Gigahertz-Optik, Newburyport, MA
www.gigahertz-optik.de
Industrial lasers
The picoREGEN and femtoREGEN UC-Industrial regenerative amplifiers are designed to have a maintenance interval of 12 months and a lifetime of 5 years. The first has power of 30 W and pulse duration of 12 ps, while the second has power of 8 W and duration of 350 fs.
High Q Laser, Bregenz, Austria
[email protected]
LED encapsulant
A range of silicone elastomers from ACC Silicones includes optically clear encapsulants, and a range of gels and rubbers with different curing cycles and physical properties. They offer refractive indexes from 1.40 to 1.49 and 1.53 for LED potting applications that need nonyellowing clarity. Thermally conductive compounds can dissipate heat to a heat sink.
Intertronics, KidlingtonOxfordshire, England
[email protected]
10 kW laser cutter
The Titan Series 10 kW fiber-laser cutting system is designed to cut thicker metals at higher rates than previous systems. The turnkey device requires no optical-system alignment and no laser replacement parts and uses almost no consumables. It is designed for marking, cutting, and engraving applications.
Laser Photonics, Lake Mary, FL
[email protected]
Access control kit
The LSS-2386 defeatable access-control kit with electronic mortise latch provides control to interlocked Class 4 laser areas and eliminates the need for magnetic locks. It provides audible and visual indication of room interlock and defeat status. An entry code unlocks the door from the outside and a hand proximity detector overrides the lock from inside.
Laser Safety Systems, Williamsburg, VA
www.lasersafetysystems.com