Fianium launches industrial picosecond lasers

24 Apr 2013

Hylase intended for high-precision materials processing applications.

Fianium, Southampton, UK, a manufacturer of high-performance ultrafast fiber lasers for applications in bio-medical, materials processing and scientific research, has launched the Hylase, a new 1064nm picosecond laser, based on fiber laser technology.

The Hylase’s remote laser head, with small foot-print and low weight, offers easy integration yet gives class-leading power and pulse energy performance.

There are two models: the Hylase-25 and Hylase-8, which are both designed to provide “high stability and long lifetime making it ideal for 24/7 industrial use”, the company states.

With a pulse-width of less than 20ps, the Hylase-25 system produces a maximum pulse energy of 125μJ and an average output power of greater than 25W. Its Gaussian (TEM₀₀) beam profile, with an M² <1.3, allows small feature sizes for high-precision material processing applications.

Gigawatt intensity

The high beam-quality, picosecond pulse-width and high pulse energy, enables focused intensities of the order of GW/cm² and fluence in the kJ/cm² range, Fianium states

The lower power Hylase-8 system outputs 50µJ at 100kHz. An optional Second Harmonic Generation module converts its output wavelength to 532nm.

Fianium says that the multi-megawatt peak-power delivered by the Hylase is suitable for processing the most demanding materials including transparent glasses and plastics. Typical applications include photovoltaic and electronics production, display glass processing and security and decorative marking.

System features include its short pulse width and high pulse energy; compact form factor; high throughput processing; low maintenance; and a variable repetition rate.

Adrian Piddington, Senior Sales Engineer at Fianium, told optics.org, “Developing the Hylase range has required Fianium to make significant progress in our R&D program. We already have some customers for the new Hylase lasers and are currently making them to order. If we win an OEM contract then we will start volume production.

“The Hylase represents the highest power and shortest pulse combination of Fianium’s industrially-focused lasers, which complement our other range of supercontinuum sources intended for the biomedical sector and other such applications.”

About Fianium

Fianium is a manufacturer of high-performance ultrafast fiber lasers for applications in bio-medical, materials processing and scientific research. The company was founded in 2003 with the objective to challenge the dominance of ultrafast DPSS lasers.

The company pioneered the development of new generation of fiber lasers that combine the features of semiconductor technology with the maturity of specialty optical fibers. Fianium sys its ultrafast fiber lasers deliver superior performance, reliability and usability at a lower total cost of ownership compared with conventional solid state lasers.

About the Author

Matthew Peach is a contributing editor to optics.org.