Blue-emitting laser gets ready for market

Two years of development have resulted in a commercial blue-emitting microchip laser from New Lambda of Clearwater, FL. The device emits 50 mW at 473 nm.

Company founder, Yutaka Shimoji, started New Lambda intending to mass-produce lasers. "It has always been in my heart," Shimoji says, "to produce a low-cost, good-quality, mass-market laser." The bridge to mass production is the microchip. The company has developed three diode-pumped solid-state blue-emitting lasers using microchip technology (see Fig. 1 on p. 36).

The laser cavity is produced by adhering two different crystals to each other to create a wafer. Thus, Nd:YAG and potassium niobate (KNbO₃), for example, produce the 473-nm laser. Alternatively, for emission at 457 nm, Nd:YVO₄ and KNbO₃ are used, or—for 430 nm—chromium-doped LiSAF and KNbO₃. The wafers are then cleaved into microchip lasers. Each chip is an individual monolithic laser cavity and is pumped directly by a diode laser.

Quiet cavity design

"This can compete with gas lasers," says Shimoji, "and potentially can be manufactured at a low price." If microchips are purchased in bulk, Shimoji predicts that he will eventually be able to sell a laser for between $400 and $600, although the introductory price of the 473-nm device will be between $2000 and $3000. "We are talking about high-volume production," Shimoji says. "The lasers must sell at a low price to open up the market."

The 457-nm and 430-nm lasers will be launched in the near future. Potential applications include biomedicine—such as diabetes monitoring—and specialized erasable optical disks. "One can only imagine what we can do with a small, low-cost, diode [type] laser," says Shimoji.

The company recently applied for a patent regarding use of the microchip lasers for curing certain polymers. New Lambda is currently a four-person company with numerous investors. Shimoji hopes to take the company public within the next six months.