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Gooch & Housego joins the dots

At the CLEO exhibit today, Paul Morris of Gooch & Housego gave me a sneak preview of a prototype fibre Q-switch that is significantly smaller than an earlier device that delivers similar performance (see picture). According to Morris, the innovative device is a direct result of the integrated strategy that Gooch & Housego unveiled back in January.

The fibre Q-switch is designed to boost the output of pulsed fibre lasers operating in the 20–40 W range. According to Morris, the small size of the device was achieved in part by reducing the size of the crystal, drawing on the expertise of the company’s main site in Ilminster, UK. But it also exploits fibre packaging know-how acquired from the former SIFAM business in Torquay, UK, to efficiently couple light into the crystal and so eliminates the need for bulk optics to achieve good alignment.

Morris said that Gooch & Housego is currently previewing the device to key customers in the fibre laser space. A formal launch is scheduled for Q3 – at which time a full technical spec will be released – while manufacturing of the device is slated to start by the end of the year.

The size of the market for such a fibre Q-switch is not yet clear. Manufacturers of fibre lasers either use fibre amplifiers or Q-switches to achieve pulsed operation at high powers, depending on the performance parameters needed for each application. Morris believes that the compact size of the fibre Q-switch will prove popular, while power levels below 50 W represent a sweet spot for fibre lasers to displace conventional Q-switched lasers in marking applications.

Also in the pipeline is a scalable fibre isolator technology. Isolators are needed in all fibre lasers to prevent reflected laser light from damaging the pump laser diode, but currently they are fabricated one at a time in a lab-based environment. Gooch & Housego is now working on a fibre isolator that would allow for higher throughputs, and Morris said that formal announcements are likely to be made towards the end of this year, or early in 2009 – no doubt in time for next year’s Photonics West.

Posted by Susan Curtis on May 7, 2008 6:07 PM | Permalink