optics.org blog
« Coherent showcases direct-diode acquisition | Main | Laser spots forest fires and raises the alarm »
Red hot laser diodes
When it came to deciding on a name for Modulight’s new range of 635 nm high-power laser diodes, applications engineer Matei Rusu told me that the decision was easy: “They are red, they are hot and so it had to be ChiliLase.”
The 635 nm ChiliLase diodes emit 4 W from a CS-mounted bar or 3 W from a fiber-pigtailed module. “There are 19 emitters in the bar,” said Rusu. “We grow these by MOCVD at our facility in Tampere in Finland and they emit directly at 635 nm. There is no frequency doubling involved.”
Modulight couples the emission from each individual emitter into a fiber and then uses its optical expertise to couple the array of fibers into a single 200 micron core fiber.
For both the 4 W bar and the 3 W pigtailed module, Modulight quotes an operating current of 10 A and an operating voltage of 2.5 V.
Rusu hopes that the diodes will find medical applications, such as photodynamic therapy to treat skin cancers. Here, the module would be used to activate a light-sensitive compound that preferentially accumulates in cancer cells.
Modulight was founded in 2000 and its mission is to “add value to optical applications”. Business at the firm is flourishing: the company posted record revenues in 2006 and sales have grown for the third year in a row. In 2006, it also secured a contract from the US security market to supply lasers for perimeter monitoring.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.iop.org/mt4/mt-tb.cgi/829