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Tunable fiber lasers are enabling a broad range of applications today and in the near future. There are several technologies, which show promise of being able to address some market segments. Tunable fiber lasers are valuable for a variety of different applications, like spectroscopy, photochemistry, optical communications, laser cooling, metrology or medical treatments. These applications require tunable lasers as they provide an ability to specifically adjust their wavelength.
The distinctive feature of the tunable fiber laser is a wavelength of operation, which can be altered in a controlled manner. Only several types of fiber lasers allow continuous tuning over a significant range. Tunable fiber lasers are usually operating in a continuous way with a small emission bandwidth, although some Q-switched and mode-locked fiber lasers can also be wavelength tuned. There are many types and categories of tunable fiber lasers such as excimer fiber lasers, gas fiber lasers (CO2 lasers, He-Ne lasers, and suchlike), dye fiber lasers (liquid and solid state), semiconductor crystal and diode lasers, and free electron lasers. Tunable fiber lasers find applications in spectroscopy, photochemistry, atomic vapor laser isotope separation, and optical communications.
Among fiber lasers, rare-earth-doped fiber lasers have the ability to be tuned over a wide range of wavelengths. For example, ytterbium fiber lasers are tunable over tens of nanometers. Tunable fiber lasers that are widely tunable are Raman fiber lasers.
Tunable fiber laser systems are used is a variety of different applications:

1. Spectroscopy

A high-frequency resolution of transmission recording is possible by using tunable lasers. Tunable fiber lasers are also used in LIDAR.

2. Laser cooling

Some methods of laser cooling require tunable lasers that can be adjusted very precisely.

3. Isotope separation

The process of isotope separation with the use of a tunable laser consists of adjusting the laser wavelength to atomic resonances first and tuning it to a particular isotope to ionize it and deflect it with an electric field.

4. Optical fiber communications

Tunable fiber lasers are often used as a spare laser in case the main fixed wavelength laser breaks down. In this situation, a wavelength-tunable laser is tuned to the wavelength of a particular channel that has failed.

5. Optical frequency metrology

In optical frequency metrology, the laser needs to be stabilized to a certain standard, e.g. an absorption cell, an optical reference cavity.
Prices for fixed and tunable fiber lasers are not yet equivalent, however. Although some tunable types are priced like fixed-wavelength devices, they are tunable over only very narrow ranges, about 3-4 nm. Those fiber lasers that can be tuned across wide wavelength ranges remain at least two or three times as expensive as their fixed counterparts. Such high price on tunable fiber lasers is explained by specific features: the increased complexity of manufacturing them, the extra testing required, and the newness of the technology, which has yet to reach true volume demand. As demand for tunable lasers rises, their prices will come down. Laser manufacturers claim the price premium for a widely tunable laser will drop to about 15-20 percent above that of a fixed laser anyway.
The significantly favorable changes in demand for tunable fiber lasers will occur in parallel with their application to make optical networks more flexible. Nowadays fiber optic networks based on different types of fiber optic devices are essentially fixed: the optical fibers are connected into pipes with huge capacity but little reconfigurability. It is almost impossible to change how that capacity is deployed in real time. In addition to this, there is a problem in choosing a wavelength for a channel: as traffic is routed through a network, certain wavelengths may be already in use across certain links. Tunable fiber lasers will ease a switch to alternative channels without swapping hardware or re-configuring network resources. The benefits gained from the use of tunable fiber lasers are in the time it takes to actually deliver different types of services. Undoubtedly, tunable fiber lasers can dramatically improve fiber optic networks efficiency and will play an important role in enabling future dynamically reconfigurable optical networks, along with optical switches and semiconductor optical amplifiers.
Optromix is a fiber laser vendor, which develops and manufactures a broad variety of fiber lasers, СО₂ lasers, Ti: Sapphire lasers, dye lasers, and excimer lasers. We offer simple erbium laser and ytterbium laser products, as well as sophisticated laser systems with unique characteristics, based on the client’s inquiry.
We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you are interested in fiber laser systems, please contact us at info@optromix.com
 

The global automotive industry has been a pioneer in adopting fiber laser technology into the manufacturing process, perhaps starting as early as 1973 when Ford Motor Co. purchased an underbody laser welding system for an assembly line.
Nowadays fiber laser market will grow faster than predicted earlier due to the increased interest from automobile and electronics industries. The interested is driven by an increased demand for green manufacturing and a concern of the material manufacturers towards the environment. Fiber laser systems provide high wall plug efficiency, an ultra-compact footprint, an excellent beam quality which does not require the complicated optics for the beam delivery.
With the development of fiber optic technology, fiber lasers are getting less expensive. The lower price of fiber laser systems makes laser welding, cutting, etc. more cost-effective. The prospect of minimizing the expenses and optimizing the production process drives the representatives of automobile and electronics industries towards the use of fiber laser systems in the production process. This increased demand will excel the market growth.
Besides being cost-efficient, fiber laser systems offer multiple beneficial properties that are desirable for many applications. Fiber lasers have high processing speed, which increases the volume of production of any given industry, making fiber lasers ideal for high volume production applications, like fiber laser welding and cutting. The ability to cut thicker and undesirable materials that often pose a challenge for other types of lasers and other optic technology. This ability offers a great market potential for various industries.
One day, gearboxes, drivetrains, transaxles, injection valves, gasoline engines, and steering columns may all be history. Drive-by-wire approaches and the alternative propelling systems of the future will be demand new manufacturing techniques. Fiber lasers will continue to play a major role in these technologies.
Fuel cells, for example, often are discussed as power sources for future automobiles. Fuel cells are composed of thin foils, and precision high-speed welding, cutting, and drilling will be required to mass-produce them.
We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you are interested in Optromix fiber lasers, please contact us at info@optromix.com
 
 

Laser engraving is a rapidly growing area of fiber laser application. The process of fiber laser engraving consists of multiple stages. First, an intense diode light is pumped into the end of fiber optic cables that are doped with a rare earth element ytterbium. Next, the energy from the pumped light is absorbed by the ytterbium and later released in a form of photons that travel down the optic cables. Leaving the optic cable, the photons create the laser beam, that physically removes a surface layer of material to expose a cavity that reveals an image visible to a human eye. These steps are performed almost instantly, making ytterbium fiber laser engraving quick and efficient. Most engraving machines are able to work with most kinds of metal, plastic, glass and wood surfaces.
Ytterbium fiber laser marking systems offer advantages over diode-pumped, solid-state lasers. Because lasers are primary light amplifiers it is no wonder that the search for more powerful, more efficient, and the most reliable solid-state light amplifier for industrial applications has resulted in adaptations of a variety of lamp-pumped and diode-pumped amplifiers for lasers used in marking and engraving. Nowadays ytterbium fiber laser amplifiers are being used in commercial and industrial applications where they operate on 24/7 duty cycles.
Ytterbium fiber lasers are special thanks to their extremely efficient optically pumped design. Such fiber lasers develop remarkably high gains from a reliability low light source. In addition to this, the active clad fiber pumping technique creates coherence in the beam structure that closely is a small, compact, robust, energy-efficient, air-cooled, solid-state laser profiles for direct part marking on a wide variety material.
One of the biggest segments for laser engraving is in the identification security segment. Fiber laser engraving is used there for credit cards, ID cards, sensitive documents, etc. Ytterbium-doped lasers are used to engrave small high-quality images and text that is tamper proof, traceable, and customizable to each company’s needs. Laser engraving can also provide serial number engraving, timestamps, component labels, barcode etching, branding, etc. Due to the multiple advantages that fiber laser engraving provides it has become an important tool in the identification, inventory control and tracking, and loss prevention.
Ytterbium lasers are unique and extremely answer to the search for more powerful, more efficient, and more reliable solid-state light amplifiers for industrial part marking.
Optromix is a worldwide fiber laser vendor. Our team manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are of high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility. The lasers that we manufacture can be used for a variety of applications.
If you are interested in different types of ytterbium fiber lasers, please contact us at info@optromix.com
 
 

Scientists from ITMO University’s Research Institute of Laser Physics have developed a special high power laser with short pulse duration for precise measurement of the distance between the Moon and the Earth. This laser will use in a lunar laser locator. Satellite coordinates must be as accurate as possible to ensure precise object location. The locator would make it possible to correct calculations of celestial coordinates of the Moon in order to improve the accuracy of satellite navigation systems. Nowadays this high power laser is the most powerful pulse-periodic picosecond laser in the world.
This ITMO’s laser locator determines the distance from the Earth to corner reflectors on the lunar surface. The accuracy of a laser locator depends on the duration of its laser pulse and resolution of the receiver. The shorter the impulse, the higher is the accuracy.
The locator’s specifics of design include a special combination of laser parameters such as a short pulse duration and high pulse repetition rate. This high pulse energy laser itself consists of a low-power generator, a regenerative preamplifier, and an output amplifier. Its special laser system compensates for the thermal aberrations arising inactive laser elements which operate at a high pulse repetition rate. The laser pulse duration is 64 ps, which is almost 16 billion times less than one second. The output pulse energy accounts to 250 mJ at the “green” wavelength and 430 mJ at the “infrared” wavelength. The pulse repetition rate is 200 Hz.
This exceptional laser system can be used not only for increasing the accuracy of navigation systems. In addition to this, it can be used for the removal of space debris. This system will be capable of identifying objects in orbit and, if necessary, pushing them away using radiation pressure.
The Russian researchers envision that the new laser will be used in a laser locator of the GLONASS navigation system, making it possible to correct satellite coordinates calculating in real time. Thus this would make the Russian system more accurate than US GRS counterpart, with a margin of error reduced to just 10 cm.
Optromix’s scientists and engineers believe in developing a real sense of partnership with our customers. Optromix’s scientists and engineers are committed to understanding our customer’s needs and providing them a broad variety of fiber lasers, СО₂ lasers, Ti: Sapphire lasers, dye lasers, and excimer lasers. We offer simple erbium fiber lasers and ytterbium fiber lasers, as well as sophisticated laser systems with unique characteristics, based on the client’s inquiry. Optomix’s scientists and engineers manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you are interested in Optromix fiber lasers or laser systems, please contact us at info@optromix.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Today Ti: Sapphire lasers are becoming more and more practical due to the recent advents of turnkey, hands-free, commercially available and diode-pumped lasers. The extended tunability of these lasers has enabled the use of various dyes with distinct absorption spectra and chemical properties. Nowadays Ti: Sapphire lasers has been instrumental in different specialty areas, such as nonlinear physics and terahertz generation. It also is being used for cold micromachining, where the cutting, drilling, and scribing are free of undesirable thermal effects. In other words, Ti: Sapphire lasers and based on them laser systems are unsurpassed in its extraordinary breadth of performance and resulting diversity of applications.
Titanium-doped sapphire lasers and amplifiers have enabled countless applications in fundamental research in physics, biology, and chemistry since their invention in the early 1980s. Nowadays Ti: Sapphire lasers play an important role across a wide range of photonics applications, including multicolor ultrafast spectroscopy, multiphoton deep-tissue imaging, terawatt and petawatt physics, and “cold” micromachining. Speaking specifically, Ti: Sapphire lasers are tunable fiber lasers which emit red and near-infrared light in the range from 650 to 1100 nanometers. These lasers are mainly used in scientific research because of their tunability and their ability to generate ultrashort pulses. Ti: Sapphire lasers possesses high laser cross sections which in turn minimizes its Q-switching instabilities. Pumping of Ti: Sapphire lasers are carried out with other lasers having wavelengths of 514 to 532 nm: it includes Nd:YVO lasers, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers or argon-ion lasers.
The first reported Ti: Sapphire laser operation was performed in June 1982 by Peter Moulton at the 12th International Quantum Electronics Conference in Munich, Germany. In 1998, Spectra-Physics offered the first commercial Ti: Sapphire laser, a broadly tunable continuous-wave model and, in late 1990, the first ultrafast Ti: Sapphire laser, a picosecond mode-locked oscillator. Further developments in this field led to a sudden paradigm shift rarely seen in research. Ti: Sapphire laser systems unmatched in their characteristics for delivering a combination of broad spectral bandwidth, a range of repetition rates, wide tunability and high-average-power levels. Since most other broadband lasers gain media have relatively poor thermal properties, Ti: Sapphire lasers offer a unique performance for use in ultrafast laser systems.
The main applications of Ti: Sapphire lasers are in research laboratories, in particular in spectroscopy. The large tuning range makes these fiber lasers attractive for generating tunable sub-picosecond pulses at short wavelengths. Ti: Sapphire lasers are used in NASA (Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment) for measuring water vapor and aerosols, and their effects on atmospheric processes. Also, Ti: Sapphire laser systems are used to study chemical reactions on ultrafast time scales. Recently, devices to control and measure the spectral phase and amplitude of the ultrafast pulses have been developed in order to find applications in the field of coherent control which has grown increasingly sophisticated in these latter days. In biology, Ti: Sapphire lasers are instrumental in multiphoton microscopy (MPM), which has developed into the leading noninvasive laboratory tool for studying underlying biological phenomena. this tool offers high-resolution three-dimensional imaging in thick tissues, special including in vivo specimens.
In addition to this, Ti: Sapphire lasers have been instrumental in fields such as nonlinear physics and terahertz generation. Thus The ability of Ti: Sapphire lasers to generate ultrafast pulses and wide wavelength tunability enable unprecedented advances across a range of discipline is science, industry, and beyond.
Optromix is a fiber laser manufacturer that develops cutting-edge laser systems and new fiber optic technologies. We produce unique fiber laser scientific systems and specialize in single frequency fiber laser products. We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility. Our company is constantly developing new laser systems that can potentially be used for fiber laser powered solar sails.
If you are interested in Optromix Ti: Sapphire fiber lasers and fiber optic technologies, please contact us at info@optromix.com
 

Ultraviolet fiber laser products are primarily intended for use in advanced studies and development in the industrial sphere. Ultraviolet fiber lasers and optical emitters are used in biotechnology and medical markets to create such special tools like sterilization and dezinfectant devices. UV fiber lasers offer to developers huge opportunities based on a noncontact method of producing microstructures on micro substances on different substances with a minimal effect on surrounding materials. The aforementioned fiber lasers generate light with wavelengths in the range from 150 to 400 nm.
Ultraviolet fiber lasers are well suited for micro-scale applications. What makes UV fiber lasers so applicable for micro-drilling and micro-structuring or for marking synthetics and glass and for creating safety features on ID or credit cards? Firstly, their short wavelength allows them to create small focused spot sizes. Secondly, short pulse width and high-intensity result in the material removal (every pulse removes only a small amount of material) allow to produce well-defined microstructures. The beam intensity is so high that the material is removed in the vapor phase in a process called ablation. Ablation can be characterized as a process of the material removal, the end result of which is a clean surface. And thirdly, the short wavelength is important because small focused spot sizes allow penetration into the material where chemical and physical transitions will result in changes of the material. Such changes can be observed either by the naked eye or under the special light or proper magnification.
There are three main types of UV fiber lasers:

1. Solid-state Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. A special crystal in this laser is used to change the infrared 1064 nm wavelength to the ultraviolet 353 nm wavelength. The beam shape is Gaussian so the spot of the ultraviolet fiber laser of this type will be round with the intensity of energy falling off gradually from the center to the edge. These ultraviolet fiber lasers are sensitive to temperature variations. Such fiber lasers have a special standby condition where all critical components are kept at the operation temperature. Due to the fact that such fiber lasers are equipped with the high repetition rate and the small focused spot they are well suited for machining on a micro scale.
2. An excimer laser typically uses a combination of a noble gas and a reactive gas. The beam generated shape isn’t round but has a rectangular shape with a more or less constant distribution of the intensity over the cross section of the beam that falls off sharply at the edges.
3. A metal vapor laser. The copper vapor laser is commonly used although vapors of several other metals also are suitable. Such UV fiber lasers generate radiation at 511 nm and 578 nm wavelength. The beam shape is Gaussian so the metal vapor laser is appropriate for the same range of applications like the solid-state ultraviolet fiber laser.

The most important type of high power ultraviolet laser for industrial application is the excimer laser. Available wavelengths include 351, 308, 248, 193 and 157 nm. The largest commercially available excimer lasers generate up to 200 W stabilized average power and up to 700 mJ pulse energy at 308 nm. The main advantages of this laser are a physical compactness, high reliability, and durability.
 
Advanced Applications of Ultraviolet Fiber Lasers
Ultraviolet fiber lasers have already found various applications at the present time:

• pulsed high power ultraviolet fiber lasers can be used for efficient cutting and drilling of holes in a variety of materials

Fiber lasers provide high power and accuracy to these applications while maintaining low maintenance costs. Most fiber laser manufacturers provide a wide range of products that are designed according to the needs of a specific area of fiber laser applications. The ability to manufacture custom fiber laser systems is crucial for some applications that require very specific laser power, wavelength, etc.
Main areas of fiber laser cutting applications include precision engineering, including fiber laser micromachining, high precision sheet metal profiling, cutting transparent materials, marking components for traceability, etc.
 

• ultraviolet fiber lasers (usually 325-365 nm) remain an uncommon excitation source for cytometry

Flow cytometry is a fundamental technique in the biomedical sciences and has helped significantly to study immune system, cancer biology, and infectious disease. UV lasers have become an important part of any cytometer setup due to recent developments in dyes used for tagging cells. Flow cytometry is the process of detecting cells with the help of molecular fluorescent tags. Cells are introduced into the laser beam in a hydrodynamically focused liquid stream in the process. A flow cytometer operates in the following way: the cells are introduced into a laser beam with a nozzle or enclosed quartz flow cell; fluorescent tags get excited, and signal collection optics collect the signals produced by the tags. The signals are steered to PMTs using dichroic mirrors and narrow bandpass filters. The tags used in cytometry are able to detect different types of cells in complex mixtures, as well as different characteristics of single cells.
Modern flow cytometers utilize solid-state lasers with wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the long red. In order to excite a wide variety of fluorescent tags, multiple single-wavelength lasers can be used to detect the cells. An average amount of cell characteristics that can be detected in a modern cytometer is 20, which is significant when compared to earlier instruments. Modern UV lasers, including UV fiber lasers, are a cost-efficient replacement for traditional laser sources in flow cytometry; they are smaller and more compact.
 

• continuous wave UV fiber lasers are required for microlithography (for instance, in the context of semiconductor chip manufacturing)

The clear target of microlithography is to strive for even smaller systems. Huge HeCd lasers and gas lasers have already been replaced by modern compact violet and ultraviolet diode lasers in modern microlithographic systems. The excellent performance of ultraviolet lasers allows a lower cost of lasers ownership, qualities of generation has to be carried out by external modulators. Ultraviolet diode lasers can be pulsed at high frequencies. In addition to this, using pulse width modulation, different levels of imaging (gray-scaling) can be obtained.

• pulsed and CW UV fiber lasers are irreplaceable for fabricating fiber Bragg gratings

The most trivial method for FBG fabrication is to expose a photosensitive fiber to an interference fringe pattern in UV light. This is actually accomplished by directing the output of an excimer (UV) laser through a phase mask. The phase mask diffracts the incident laser light into various orders, which overlap and optically interfere with each other in the mask vicinity. This process is conceptually straightforward, but there are several insurmountable barriers to overcome. Firstly, cost of the excimer laser as well as the phase mask. Secondly, there is a need for holding and positioning all the components in such a way that a grating having the right spacing and index variation characteristics can be produced at exactly the correct place along the optical fiber. The system, among other things, must have some way to accommodate the batch-to-batch variations in the index of the fiber used if the goal is to produce a large number of FBGs with each having consistent characteristics.

• UV and even deep-UV lasers are required in refractive laser eye surgery of the cornea and in other medical applications

Ultraviolet fiber lasers are most commonly used to correct myopia (nearsightedness), but can also be used to correct hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism. The ultraviolet excimer laser alters the refractive state of the eye by removing tissue from the anterior cornea through a process known as “photoablative decomposition”. This process uses ultraviolet energy from the excimer laser to disrupt chemical bonds in the cornea without causing any thermal damage to surrounding tissue. The modified anterior corneal surface enables light to be focused on the retina, thereby reducing or eliminating the dependence on glasses and contact lenses.
etc.
 
An Extraordinary Laser of a New Generation That Will Solve a Number of Problems of the Laser World
According to the forecasts, UV fiber lasers will be widely used in an expanding range of applications with their recent improvements in performance, cost of ownership and with their increasing reliability.
Optromix scientists developed the super-technologically advanced ultraviolet laser based on single frequency fiber laser with wavelength 1030 nm. An ytterbium-doped DFB (distributed feedback) fiber laser was used as a seed laser. The radiation of the DFB fiber laser was amplified in few fiber amplifiers to 10 W. With this power there was achieved 1,5 W at 515 nm. The second harmonic 515 mn was obtained with PPSLT (Periodically Poled Stoichiometric Lithium Tantalate) crystal, which was converted to the fourth harmonic 257,5 nm in the external cavity. This power level was enough to obtain 100 mW in UV region of spectra. On the basis of these results, the compact and energy efficient UV source was developed, which does not require water cooling.
The creation of fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) is an inescapable part of modern fiber optic technology and, specifically, the technology that aimed to create fiber lasers. The process of Bragg grating writing is effective when using ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Different types of lasers can be the sources of ultraviolet radiation. Nowadays the best characteristics for writing FBG are the length of coherence, positive stability, and beam quality of germanosilicate optical fibers. The frequency doubling of the continuous wave argon laser contributes to meeting these characteristics at 244 nm.
In itself, the argon laser is a complex system which consists of an evacuated laser tube, a power source, and a pump that is necessary for circulating of the cooling liquid in the laser tube. The basic operating costs are related to high electricity and water bills. Additionally, such fiber lasers need regular repair and replacement of a vacuum gas discharge tube. Argon lasers need permanent repair and maintenance with the constant help of highly qualified specialists.
In this connection, it is necessary to emphasize that the pulsed excimer lasers at 248 nm are most common and relatively cheap. Such excimer fiber lasers are more effective than argon lasers, but they have a much worse beam quality and a pulsed generation mode. These parameters limit the possibilities for FBG writing for the excimer lasers.
The above-mentioned ytterbium-doped fiber laser with the 4th harmonic generation in the BBO crystal is an alternative for FBG writing. In addition to this, Optromix ytterbium-doped ultraviolet fiber laser has several advantages in comparison with the argon laser:

• Optromix laser is smaller and lighter than the conventional argon laser
• It is easier to manage and maintain
• Optromix laser has low energy consumption
• Optromix laser does not need a water cooling
• Optromix laser is relatively inexpensive

Optromix Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, MA, USA, is a manufacturer of laser technologies, optical fiber sensors, and optical monitoring systems.
We develop and manufacture a broad variety of fiber lasers, СО 2 lasers, Ti: sapphire lasers, dye lasers, and excimer lasers. We offer simple erbium laser and ytterbium laser products, as well as sophisticated laser systems with unique characteristics, based on the client’s inquiry.
We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you are interested in fiber laser systems, please contact us at info@optromix.com
 

Sea-level rise is getting faster, and seas could be several feet higher by the end of the century. Melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica has increased, according to NASA. The mission called the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2) will take incredibly precise measurements of ice sheet depth, allowing scientists to add the third dimension they lose when looking at aerial or space-based images of the spread of ice. The US Geological Survey and the navy are interested in the elevation data. With ice melt, new routes are expected to open through the Arctic, significantly reducing shipping times.
The world will soon have a clearer picture of how quickly humans are melting Earth’s ice and expanding the seas with data collected by a sophisticated satellite “ICESat-2” launched by NASA. The satellite, about the size of a Smart car, will point six lasers at ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica. It will then calculate low long the beams take to bounce back. So NASA will be able to more accurately measure the heights of ice sheets, and the thickness of remaining sea ice. Thickness is the most important indicator because thinner sea ice is broken up more easily by storms, plus such sea ice melts faster. Between 2003 and 2009, the measured sea ice lost 40% of its thickness.
An original satellite ICESat has been out of commission since 2009, and after that, between 2009 and 2018, NASA has used a plane to take more rudimentary measurements of ice melt for about a month per year in the Arctic and Antarctica. That allowed NASA to monitor the fastest changing parts of the ice sheets and sea ice.
ICESat-2 has just one instrument, which is called the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), a space-based LIDAR. This laser system produces six finely tuned laser beams of bright-green light, which it beams down to bounce off Earth’s surface. The instrument creates six separate laser beams in three pairs, so scientists can adapt the data if the satellite ends up straying a little from its planned path. The ATLAS laser emits visible laser pulses at 532 nm wavelength and takes elevation measurements every 70 cm along the satellite’s ground path. The laser fires at a rate of 10 kHz. Each pulse sends out about 20 trillion photons. A precious few photons back perfectly to meet the satellite again, although many of them are lost, scattering off in all directions. The aforementioned dozen of photons from each pulse is collected with a beryllium telescope. Beryllium has a high specific strength and holds its shape across a wide range of temperatures. That’s an important advancement from the original ICESat mission, which produced data using a single laser beam.
The new satellite provides more complete coverage and measure to within a centimeter. This spacecraft produces 10,000 pulses of photons every single second. ICESat-2 will orbit from pole to pole, taking measurements all along the way but offering the densest height maps near the poles.
NASA, it should be noted, has an entire fleet of satellites observing Earth, including for signs of climate changes. Scientists and engineers worldwide are researching laser applications in space, not only to consider and test the feasibility of specific uses but also to continue to develop state-of-the-art laser systems so that these applications will improve. There are many applications where fiber lasers are employed in space. Fiber lasers are becoming increasingly attractive for space for the reasons such as their lightweight, small size, and low power consumption.
Optromix is a fiber laser vendor, which develops and manufactures a broad variety of fiber lasers, СО₂ lasers, Ti: Sapphire lasers, dye lasers, and excimer lasers. We offer simple erbium laser and ytterbium laser products, as well as sophisticated laser systems with unique characteristics, based on the client’s inquiry.
We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are of high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you would like to buy Optromix scientific laser systems, please, contacts us at info@optromix.com

Laser welding is a welding technique used to join multiple pieces of metal through the use of a laser beam. Nowadays many companies use lasers to weld parts together during the manufacturing stage of product design: these companies come from a wide range of industry sectors including medical, aerospace, and suchlike. Laser welding is used in high volume applications such as in the automotive industry. Laser welding in the automotive industry has applications that enable manufacturers to weld component engine parts, transmission parts, alternators, solenoids, fuel injectors, fuel filters, air and conditioning equipment as well as many other applications. Today the automotive manufacturing industry has changed for the better, as a new generation of body engineers seem to be free to consider aluminum, lightweight steels, and non-metals such as engineered plastics and composites due to onerous government requirements for fuel economy. Plastic body components are now used all over the auto world, even on premium cars like Audi.
The laser welding process exhibits good repeatability and is easy to automate. Laser welding has numerous advantages and benefits over traditional welding methods. It can reduce costs while improving production efficiency and quality.
Laser techniques have several advantages over traditional metal-joining technologies:

• Increased process speed, resulting in higher productivity
• Compact manufacturing lines with reduced floor-space requirements
• Enhanced strength of the joints
• The reduced width of the flange, resulting in reduced vehicle weight
• Greater tooling flexibility

There are a number of different types of lasers that can be used for welding in the automotive industry:

• Fiber lasers

Fiber lasers can be used for a variety of applications from welding very small parts together. Such small parts are used in the engineering, medical, and electronics industries by manufacturing businesses. The high beam quality of high power fiber lasers is commonly used for remote welding applications in body job applications. The speed of welding and productivity are unmatched with any other welding technology including resistance spot welding or traditional laser welding. Fiber lasers are a versatile low-cost way of achieving high-quality spot welds.
The fiber laser welding process leaves a joint which is incredibly strong and long-lasting. With the help of such lasers the joint is produced in an effective, safe, and environmentally friendly way.

• Nd: YAG pulsed lasers

Such lasers create discrete pulses of controllable energy which can be shaped to create the ideal weld. Nd: YAG pulsed lasers are suitable for producing large spot welds as well as deep spot and seam welds.

• Continuous wave lasers

These lasers are ideal for high-speed welding and deep penetrating welding because they produce welds with a very low heat input.
The automotive industry is one of the most important in the modern society. Lasers have become a prominent part of this sector. This is especially the case for fiber lasers because such lasers and fiber laser systems can work with reflective metals without having their beam redirected back into the laser system itself. The reflective metals are a common part of the automotive sector, as multiple metals are used.
Welding trials at TWI using the latest fiber laser technology confirm this type of laser source should now be considered as an alternative to the CO₂ or Nd: YAG laser for the welding of materials, such as steel and aluminium. Fiber lasers and laser systems are also very attractive from an economic point of view with their power conversion efficiency and claimed reliability. Industrial confidence in the fiber laser technology is on the up too.
We believe in developing a real sense of partnership with our customers. We are committed to understanding our customer’s needs and providing them with a broad variety of fiber lasers, СО₂ lasers, Ti: Sapphire lasers, dye lasers, and excimer lasers. We offer simple erbium fiber lasers and ytterbium fiber lasers, as well as sophisticated laser systems with unique characteristics, based on the client’s inquiry. We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are of high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you are interested in Optromix fiber lasers, please contact us at info@optromix.com

Nowadays femtosecond lasers are being considered for a growing list of micromachining applications with their ability to process any material with a minimal amount of heat-affected zones (HAZ). This type of ultrafast lasers is an ideal technology not only for micromachining, but also for medical device fabrication, scientific research, eye surgery, and bioimaging. Short pulse durations, along with higher energies and lower costs, are helping femtosecond lasers produce the next generation of medical implants, make smartphone glass covers more durable and improve the fuel efficiency of automobiles through the drilling of gasoline injector nozzles. The short pulse duration of femtosecond lasers enables material processing with cold ablation. Plus the optional second harmonic allows smaller features or higher ablation rates.
Currently, femtosecond lasers and laser systems have become popular tools for machining transparent, brittle materials, as the ability of cold ablation promises process results with the minimum amount of chipping and micro-cracks. Application of femtosecond lasers can result in high cut quality. The very high cutting quality also leads to extremely high bending strength. In addition to this, the high peak intensity of femtosecond lasers enables nonlinear absorption inside of transparent materials. The availability of femtosecond lasers with more than 100 μJ pulse energy and special multi-foci optics now enable simultaneous modification of four layers, resulting in four-times-faster cutting speeds.
High precision and excellent process quality are ideal for drilling gasoline injector nozzles. Automakers around the world are under pressure to meet increasingly strongest mileage requirements, so they are working on at least two fronts:

• to design drivetrain systems that run on renewable or alternative fuels
• to wring more mileage out of existing fossil-fuel engine designs

The spray pattern depends on the injection pressure, but also on the geometry and sidewall quality of the nozzle holes, so these holes must have very smooth walls post-drilling. Historically, these tiny and high aspect ratio holes with 150- to 250- μm diameters have been drilled by electron discharge machining (EDM). However, femtosecond lasers have now reached levels of reliability and pricing so that they can be dependably used in automotive production. The process of drilling small, high aspect ratio holes with excellent surface quality requires ultrafast lasers with high energy pulses of 80 μJ or more at ultrashort pulse durations. For the drilling of very narrow holes, higher pulse energies at lower repetition rates are more beneficial than higher output powers and higher repetition rates. For drilling holes with aspect ratio, a shorter wavelength, such a second harmonic of a ytterbium laser at around 520 nm, is beneficial. The advantages are a smaller focus spot size and a larger Rayleigh length.
The implementation of the laser drilling process for diesel nozzles is the next development step. Ultrafast lasers with pulse energies >40 μJ at wavelengths in the visible range will be necessary to substitute for conventional EDM methods.
Femtosecond lasers will continue to improve in cost-performance as lasers become even more competitive with mechanical machining methods. Such lasers will provide higher average powers and pulse energies for higher throughput in coming years.
We believe in developing a real sense of partnership with our customers. We are committed to understanding our customer’s needs and providing them with a broad variety of fiber lasers, СО₂ lasers, Ti: Sapphire lasers, dye lasers, and excimer lasers. We offer simple erbium fiber lasers and ytterbium fiber lasers, as well as sophisticated laser systems with unique characteristics, based on the client’s inquiry. We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are of high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you are interested in Optromix femtosecond lasers, please contact us at info@optromix.com

An innovative method of using mid-infrared lasers to turn regions of molecules in the open air into glowing filaments of electrically charged gas, or plasma, was found a couple of years ago. This new method could make it possible to carry out remote environmental monitoring to detect a wide range of chemicals with high sensitivity. The development of a new system is a merit of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with researchers in Binghamton, New York (US), and Hamburg, Germany. This laser system makes use of a mid-infrared ultrafast pulsed laser to generate the filaments, whose colors can reveal the chemical fingerprints of different molecules.
The mid-IR wavelengths, rather than the near-IR, offer the greatest promise for detecting a wide variety of biomedical compounds and air pollutants. There are three elements that were used in the innovative scientific laser system:
A mid-infrared region of the light
The broadband mid-infrared wavelength laser pulses are highly sensitive molecular vibrations and rotations. So most of the chemicals have well-defined absorption lines in the wavelength range of 2-10 micrometer. These absorption lines are called molecular fingerprints.
Laser filamentation
One key to the success of this mid-infrared laser system is the use of a high-power femtosecond laser with pulses just 30 femtoseconds, or millions of a billionth of a second, long. The femtosecond laser with what is known as a parametric amplifier provided the necessary power for the quality work of the laser system. The aforementioned device produces one of the highest peak-power levels in the world at these mid-IR wavelengths. Such 30 femtosecond strong mid-IR laser pulses can generate laser filaments in open air. The laser filamentation enables the self-guided propagation of the beam over up to kilometers of distance thanks to balancing between nonlinear self-focusing and plasma defocusing. In the linear propagation without filamentation, the laser beam is diffracted and loses the confinement.
White light generation
White light generation is the spectral broadening, which is an important property of femtosecond filamentation.
One critical application of new mid-infrared laser system is the ability to detect industrial pollutants in the atmosphere and to remotely measure the density of carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmosphere. Monitoring the atmospheric chemicals is crucial for evaluating the global warming issue as well as protecting people’s health.
The mid-infrared laser system based on parametric amplifiers with ytterbium lasers is already regarded as an excellent platform of the next-generation femtosecond laser technique. Scientists around the world will be working with similar fiber laser architecture over the next 10 years and there will be many commercial products emerging with markets growing fast.
Optromix is a fiber laser vendor, which develops and manufactures a broad variety of fiber lasers, СО₂ lasers, Ti: Sapphire lasers, dye lasers, and excimer lasers. We offer simple erbium laser and ytterbium laser products, as well as sophisticated laser systems with unique characteristics, based on the client’s inquiry.
We manufacture lasers using our own technologies based on the advanced research work and patents of international R&D team. Laser processes are of high quality, high precision, easily-automated manufacturing solutions that provide repeatability and flexibility.
If you would like to buy Optromix scientific laser systems, please, contacts us at info@optromix.com