Optics

Spatial light modulator business of CRi acquired by Meadowlark Optics

March 30, 2015

Meadowlark Optics has acquired the spatial light modulator (SLM) line of products from Cambridge Research & Instrumentation, part of PerkinElmer Life Sciences.

Conard Holton

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Meadowlark Optics (Frederick, CO) has acquired the spatial light modulator (SLM) line of products from Cambridge Research & Instrumentation (CRi; Hopkinton, MA), part of PerkinElmer Life Sciences since 2011. CRi's line of liquid crystal 1x128 and 1x640 SLMs has been added to Meadowlark's existing transmissive and reflective SLM product lines.

Garry Gorsuch, President & CEO of Meadowlark, says that adding the CRi SLM product demonstrates the company's commitment to growth and expanding capabilities into additional markets. Meadowlark's SLMs offer options with single and dual masks allowing separate amplitude and phase control (or both simultaneously) for many applications requiring precision ultra-fast laser pulse shaping.

In July 2014, Meadowlark acquired the Commercial Products Group of Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS; Lafayette, CO), with products that included SLMs, optical shutters, polarization rotators, variable waveplates, and the CUBE optical tweezing systems.

SLMs have an expanding role in many applications where light control, often of ultrafast laser pulses, on a pixel-by-pixel basis across a particular spectrum is critical for optimum system performance. SLMs are used to control incident light in amplitude, phase, or the combination of both. CRi says it pioneered the design and use of a single liquid crystal-based SLM to control both amplitude and phase simultaneously.

Source: Meadowlark Optics

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.