Coherent features prototype 488 nm laser at Photonics West

17 Jun 2002

Coherent Laser Division of Santa Clara, California, showed for the first time a prototype 488 nm solid-state optically pumped semiconductor laser at Photonics West in San Jose last week.

The company says that the device is the first practical alternative to the 488 nm air-cooled argon-ion lasers that currently dominate the analytical instrumentation market.

Paul Ginouves, business development manager for Coherent's Instrumentation Business Unit, said: "Low-power air-cooled argon-ion lasers are nearly ubiquitous in analytical instrumentation. Many biological applications are tethered to the 488 nm emission line by virtue of a monstrous fluorescent reagent legacy developed for that wavelength.

"Argon-ion lasers are large and electrically inefficient. The all-solid-state OPSL-488 meets and exceeds the performance characteristics of the air-cooled argon-ion laser, but with a much smaller package and significantly reduced thermal load."

The device is based on a type of vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) driven by optical pumping. By tailoring the molecular beam epitaxy grown semiconductor gain medium to produce 976 nm as the fundamental wavelength, and with the inclusion of a frequency-doubling element, a 488 nm laser with 20 mW of output is produced. It has a TEM00 beam profile and optical noise of less than 1%.

"Although the OPSL-488 is new, it is based on several proven components, all of which have well quantified performance characteristics," said Ginouves.

Applications range from flow cytometry and DNA sequencing to printing and photo processing. Beta testing the new device is already under way and initial commercial delivery will start this year.

Coherent announced first tax quarter bookings and sales to the end of December of USD 188.4 million and USD 154.5 million respectively, representing a 40% and 21% increase on the same quarter the previous year.