Consortium to develop next-gen fiber lasers

January 11--A consortium led by UK company Fianium, a developer of ultrafast fiber lasers, has received $2.7 million from the UK Government's Department of Trade and Industry to develop "next generation" fiber lasers for industrial and imaging applications.

The DTI-funded Ultrafast project is a collaborative project involving Fianium as a lead partner, Lairdside Laser Engineering Centre (LLEC), at the University of Liverpool, as a partner responsible for materials processing characterization, and the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials (CPPM), at the University of Bath, which is developing novel fiber geometries for incorporation into Fianium's products.

LLEC will take delivery of a new picosecond fiber laser system from Fianium in January for materials processing characterization trials as part of the Ultrafast project. The laser is a member of the FemtoPower series operating at a wavelength of 1064 nm with a maximum pulse energy of 4 microJoules.

CPPM is to develop new types of photonic crystal fibers tailored for use within ultrafast fiber lasers to enable the delivery of femtosecond pulses with high peak powers.

For more information, visit www.fianium.com.