Los Gatos, CA—Fiber lasers are quickly maturing as a technology, and 2003 is the year that deployment is taking place as they move out of the application labs and onto the manufacturing floor. A number of innovations—ranging from high-power and high-reliability pump devices (originally established for single-mode lasers) to advanced specialty fiber coupling technology and the use of large mode area fiber to increase power handling—have positioned fiber lasers to compete with diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) and lamp-pumped solid-state (LPSS) lasers.
Fiber laser performance and its future are almost entirely dependent on novel approaches to specialty fiber manufacturing for both the active medium and for fiber coupling to the medium. SPI (Southampton Photonics, Inc.) is one of the companies at the forefront of this revolution in fiber lasers for industry. With technology spun out of the University of Southampton in the UK—one of the internationally recognized elite establishments in the field of laser technology—combined with its state-of-the-art specialty fiber manufacturing facility, SPI is well positioned to take advantage of the burgeoning market for fiber lasers.
SPI's fiber laser technology is delivering not only CW powers but also pulse powers, allowing the industrial laser market a choice with this new technology. SPI is launching its new range of fiber lasers with a range of powers in June at the Laser 2003 exhibition in Munich. Fiber lasers offer superior beam quality, a greatly reduced footprint and high efficiency, and they require no maintenance, thereby radically reducing the cost of ownership.
SPI has manufacturing and research and development facilities in the UK, with its corporate headquarters in California.
For more information on SPI and its range of fiber lasers, check out its website at www.spioptics.com.