RPMC Lasers Blog

In actively Q-switched lasers, the user controls the pulsed laser output, so that no laser pulse emission occurs without providing a proper input signal, aka “the trigger”. Due to the trigger signal propagation through the interface electronics, the Q-switch driver chain, and the laser resonator build-up time, a time delay (Td) is present between the externally-supplied trigger signal and the actual laser pulse emitted by the laser source. The Td can show fluctuations if any electronics or optics involved in the pulse generation process have a functional varianc… Read More

Single-frequency lasers have long been the cornerstone of standoff gas detection applications, particularly in traditional LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), DIAL (Differential Absorption LIDAR), and TDLAS (Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy).  More recently, as single-frequency laser diodes have become more common and less expensive, they are being utilized in more localized and industrial gas sensing app… Read More

For security purposes, ID cards often require some form of unique identifier and tamper-proof security features, designed to mitigate the potential for alteration and counterfeiting. Laser sources play an essential role in this regard, providing a means to create permanent, high-quality, and tamper-proof marks on polymeric cards. Typically, the ID cards are a multi-layer composition of poly-carbonate and PVC, with select pigments added to the inner layers of the card during fa… Read More

The LaserBoxx L6Cc and L4Cc laser beam combiner series, from Oxxius, is a compact and flexible all-in-one multi-color laser source. These fully integrated packages utilize a dichroic combining technique with up to 6 different diode and/or DPSS lasers and couples them into either a single output channel or two independent channels, which is often preferable when utilizing both ultraviolet and visible or infrared lasers in the same unit, and further output expansion modules enabling up to 4 separate fiber-couple… Read More

A significant and well-recognized difference between lasers and conventional, incoherent light sources, is the ability to concentrate laser emission in short pulses, with durations going down to a few femtoseconds, containing potentially only a few optical cycles. Technically, you can drive an incoherent LED source using current pulses. However, each pulse would have a maximum power (i.e. a peak power) equal to the average power of the same device if a continuous bias were applied. Only laser cavities can concentrate the stored energy within active materials in such a way to achieve peak powers orders of magnitude higher than their ave… Read More

Jenoptik is now offering the JOLD-275-CPNN-1L, their latest development in the field of high-power laser sources for industrial material processing, medical, and life science applications. Thanks to Jenoptik’s patented mounting and bonding technology, this new, passively cooled diode laser is able to achieve extremely high performance in hard pulse and CW applications. Jenoptik also utilizes the efficient and high-performance semiconductor materials they produce themselves to manufacture their high-power las… Read More

we will highlight another set of lasers offered here at RPMC, which are ideal for higher-order harmonic generation, allowing it to produce wavelengths from the infrared to the ultraviolet; the Sol, Wedge, and Onda from Bright Solutions.  All three of these laser sources are robust and compact, making them ideal for integration into OEM systems.  In this blog, we will highlight several of the features which make each unit uniquely suited for harmonic c… Read More

LDX Optronics and RPMC Lasers have been partnered together since the late ’90s to provide customers with the broadest selection of diode wavelengths and packaging configurations on the market.  Over the course of our nearly 25-year relationship with LDX, we have seen their multimode diode laser capabilities grow to encompass sources ranging all the way from 400nm to 1900nm and power levels up to 40W.  However, the most impressive thing about LDX is there packaging expertise, which allows them to supply an incredibly diverse range of standard laser diode packages as well as customized a… Read More

Diode lasers come in a wide variety of packaging configurations. Each package type provides different pros and cons when it comes to beam delivery, heat sinking, integration, and so on.  The two most common packages for what we call “component level” diode lasers are the TO-can and the 14-pin butterfly package.  While there are some exceptions, in general, the TO-can is the preferred packaging for open beam laser delivery, and the butterfly is preferred for fiber-coupled beam d… Read More

Having trouble deciding which fiber-coupling connection is best for you? Check out our newest white paper, titled “Choosing the Right Connector for Your Fiber-Coupled Laser Diode.”  In this paper, we review: Pros and cons of the most common fiber optic connectors and the Importance of the self-centeri… Read More

Solid-state lasers offer many advantages over other laser sources. One of their most unique benefits is the ability to produce extremely high pulse energy.  Solid-state lasers can achieve this through q-switching, which is a process where the resonator losses are periodically increased, therefore interrupting the lasing process.  Unlike other laser pulsing methodologies, q-switching is unique in that the pump source remains active while no lasing is oc… Read More

When you look through a window at night and see your reflection, that is because on average 4% of the incident light is reflected at the interface between air and glass.   While 4% may seem like a small amount when dealing with lasers, a 4% back reflection can have more than enough power to destabilize or even permanently destroy the laser.    If the laser beam is perfectly aligned through the system, so too will the back reflections be perfectly aligned to go back into the las… Read More

Electric power is determined by the product of the voltage and current supplied to a device. As a result, when designing an adjustable power supply, one of those two parameters must be variable, and the other constant if you want to be able to tune the power supply to your desired output. These two types of supplies are known broadly as constant current (CC) and constant voltage (CV) output circuits. When driving a laser diode, both CC and CV power supplies have pros and cons, but the rule of thumb is that you should always use a CC supply and never… Read More

Traditional microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas (mostly cells) that are not within the resolution range of the naked eye. Compound microscope designs feature objectives and condensers, but also consists of very simple, single-lens instruments that are often hand-held, such as a photography loupe or common magnify… Read More

Ever since the industrial fiber laser boom in the early 2000’s, there has been an ongoing debate about the most efficient way to produce high power, fiber-coupled, diode pump lasers. At its root, this debate comes down to the question of single-emitters versus diode bars. While single-emitters cannot come close to the power levels produced by diode bars, typically only producing a few watts of output power, they have several advantages over bars that make them far more desirable for systems in… Read More

iode lasers offer a vast range of wavelength options from the ultraviolet through the infrared.  But, there is still one glaring hole in the visible spectrum between 520 nm and 633 nm.  This region, which is often referred to as the “yellow gap,” results from the disparity between the upper range of InGaN diodes and the lower range in AlGaInP.  When most people talk about Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO4 DPSS lasers, they are very familiar with the main 1064 nm laser line, and for a good reason, since it is the most efficient tra… Read More

Thanks to the experience Bright Solutions has acquired in the state-of-the-art design of sub-ns DPSS lasers over the years, the Wedge family has recently been updated in terms of performance and available models. These improvements include increased average output power, and improved pulse energy stability, while maintaining a sub-ns pulse width and the ability to optimize laser performance at higher repetition rates. They also boast high peak output powers, with relatively low energy and heat generation, as well as myriad of customization possibilities and options to tweak and enhance yo… Read More

In part one of this blog series, we set out to answer the question of “how to get the right laser spot at the right distance?”  As we went on to explain, this simple question doesn’t have a simple answer, especially when we are talking about single-mode fiber optics.  In that post, we took the time to go through
an introduction of Gaussian beam optics and provided a few examples of how that can be used to determine the lens you need to choose for a given spot size.  In part two, we are going to explore the far more straightforward case of imaging a multi-mode las… Read More

At RPMC, we are excited to announce the release of our newest white paper titled “Laser Requirements for Time Gated Active Night Vision Imaging Systems.”  In this paper, we review the fundamentals of modern night vision camera technology. We then go on to discuss the differences between active and passive imaging systems.  Finally, we will explore the advantages and disadvantages of using laser-based, active imaging systems and illuminating why, in some instances, lasers are the preferred illumination source, despite their inherent … Read More

RPMC is proud to announce the release of their new Homogenized Multi-Mode 14-Pin BF Diode.  This multi-mode, wavelength stabilized laser features high output power with low power consumption and narrow spectral bandwidth. Another exciting feature is the shaped and homogenized beam profile, which evenly spreads out the power density and shapes the beam to match the field of view of a camera. The Homogenized Multi-Mode 14-Pin BF Diode is designed to replace expensive DFB, DBR, fiber, and external cavi… Read More

Within the laser community, one of the most overused and often miscommunicated terms is the phrase “single mode.”  This is because a laser beam when traveling through air takes up a three-dimensional volume in space similar to that of a cylinder; and just as with a cylinder, a laser beam can be divided into independent coordinates each with their own mode structure.  For a cylinder we would call these the length and the cross-section, but as shown in the figure below for a laser beam, we define these as the transverse electromagnetic (TEM) plane and the longitud… Read More

In that blog post we cited NATO standard STANAG 3733, which required that the laser beam have a divergence small enough so that 90% of its energy is on target 95% of the time assuming a 2.3 x 2.3 m target.  We went on to explain that most laser designators are designed to be used at distances up to 5 km.  Therefore, one of the most critical factors when choosing a laser source is the beam d… Read More

In the past, we have published several different blogs and whitepapers relating to both Raman and fluorescent confocal microscopy.  Therefore, there is no need for us to repeat the basics here, so we will simply point out that while traditional confocal microscopes provide excellent spatial resolution, they do so at the trade-off of producing extremely large intensities at the… Read More

Laser amplifiers are an invaluable tool because they allow for a laser’s power to be increased while maintaining its basic spectral properties. In principle laser amplifier noise is no different than the amplifier noise induced in an audio system, and just as in a home stereo system the quality of the amplifier will have a tremendous effect on the quality of output signal.  Therefore, in this post we will attempt to answer the question what is laser amplifier noise, and perhaps more importantly how amplifier noise can affect the overall performance of yo… Read More

Building upon our recent series of blog posts on fiber-coupled diode lasers, we now turn our attention to how you can manipulate the laser light coming out of a fiber.  Perhaps the most common question we get here at RPMC, is how to get a specific laser spot size at a given distance.  This seemingly simple question of “which lens should I use?” or “how to get the right laser spot at the right distance?” is actually a rather complex problem that is highly dependent on the particular type of fi… Read More