January 26, 2009
Furukawa Electric has applied its experience in fiber laser technology(Note 1) to the development of a single mode (Note 2), 1.5 W output power, 532 nm green laser which features low power consumption and small footprint. This laser and related products were exhibited at Laser & Optics 2009 at Tokyo Big Sight in January 2009.
Background
While visible blue laser sources (around 450 nm in wavelength) and red laser (around 530 nm in wavelength) employing semiconductor laser are already common place, Green lasers are significantly more difficult to be realized by semiconductor technology. Hence, green lasers based on wavelength technology are creating interest.
Furukawa Electric has developed, as fundamental-wave light source for wave conversion, a fiber laser featuring the most compact and competitive in the industry, and launched the laser in January, 2008. By combining the fiber laser and a wavelength conversion device (Note 3), the Company has recently commercialized this technology, offering a single-mode green laser with an optical output of 1.5 W that features low power consumption and small footprint packaging.
Furukawa Electric has already brought into the market a 30 mW output green laser that is based on the same principle, targeted at applications for chemical analysis. The new product developed here has increased the Furukawa green laser output capability by a factor of 50, so that it can be used in a broad range of applications including micro materials processing, medical equipment, laser displays and experimental light sources of academic research.
Product Features
- A high-performance fiber laser is combined with a high-efficiency wavelength conversion device, achieving an electro-optical conversion efficiency of 7% or higher, the highest level in the industry.
- Offered in a compact package suitable for integrated applications.
- Output power up to 1.5 W with good beam quality (Note 4) of M2 <1.2.
Product Specifications
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Maximum output | 1.5 W |
| Operation mode | CW operation |
| Center wavelength | 532±0.1 nm |
| Linewidth | 0.04 nm or less |
| Beam quality | M2 <1.2 |
| Polarization ratio | 100:1 or less |
| Beam diameter (1/e2) | 2.5 mm |
| Beam divergence angle | 0.5 mrad |
Glossary
(Note 1) Fiber laser
Fiber laser is a generic term for lasers that use optical fibers as the lasing medium. Lasers amplify light by confining the light within a lasing medium in which stimulated emission can take place. They come in a variety of types including, besides fiber lasers, gas lasers that use a gas as the lasing medium (e.g. CO2 laser), solid state lasers (e.g. YAG laser), semiconductor lasers and dye lasers.Back to Main Content
(Note 2) Single mode
Single mode in this case refers to single transverse mode. When the core diameter of an optical fiber is considerably reduced, only the propagation of the fundamental mode of the lowest order (i.e., 0th order) is supported. Unlike multi-mode propagation where multiple modes of light exist, single-mode propagation does not exhibit wavefront distortion due to time dispersion of optical signals because only the fundamental mode exists.Back to Main Content
(Note 3) Wavelength conversion device
An optical device that can convert the wavelength of an input light by a factor of, say 1/2, 1/3 or 1/4, taking advantage of the optical nonlinearity. In the case of this product, the output wavelength of 1064 nm is converted by a factor of 1/2 to generate a green light of 532 nm.Back to Main Content
(Note 4) Beam quality
M2 is an index to express beam quality, representing the degree of beam divergence of real laser beams and the minimum focused spot size. For an ideal Gaussian beam, M2 = 1.Back to Main Content