Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
c o m J a n u a r y 2019
What
goes
up …
ANNUAL LASER MARKET
REVIEW & FORECAST
PAGE 40
Deconvolution revolution;
Superresolution
fluorescence imagery PAGE 85
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Photonics Technologies
n-side
&p-side
Solutions for Technical
Professionals Worldwide JANUARY 2019 VOL. 55, NO. 1
■
40 COVER STORY
After enjoying nine years
of growth since the Great 77 Diode Lasers
Recession, the laserb)
Research gives high-power
industry sees widespread
macroeconomic softening, diode lasers new capabilities
wondering if “what goes Paul Crump and Andreas Thoss
up must come down.”
Turn to page 40 for our full
laser market review and 81 Quantum Photonics
forecast! (Cover illustration Ensuring quantum-secured
by Chris Hipp) communications
Christopher Chunnilall and Tim Spiller
20 (12,0) (7,5) 0
Temperature Horizontal
0
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 LASER FOCUS WORLD PRESENTS
Time (h)
a) b) 85 Microscopy/Image Processing
16 Flexible Optics Phone-based optical A deconvolution revolution for
lead testing exceeds EPA standards confocal image enhancement
James Lopez , Shintaro Fujii, Atsushi Doi , and
24 Superresolution Fluorescence
Hiromi Utsunomiya
Imaging Laptop system produces
superresolution fluorescence imagery
Pictured right: Manufactured in 1988, Fujikura led the way in specialty splicing
innovation with the FSM-10PM fusion splicer. This long history of innovation
continues today.
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Photonics Technologies
& Solutions for Technical
Professionals Worldwide JANUARY 2019 VOL. 55, NO. 1
■
columns departments
7
THE EDITOR’S DESK 120 BUSINESS FORUM 108 NEW PRODUCTS 119 ADVERTISING/
Another record year ‘Jenoptik is at a WEB INDEX
John Lewis decisive moment in its 114 MANUFACTURERS’
history’—An interview PRODUCT 119 SALES OFFICES
Editor-in-Chief with Stefan Traeger SHOWCASE
Andreas Thoss
Contributing Editor, Germany
Stronger, Cooler
and aster !
See them in action, at
Photonics West 2019 (Booth 2343).
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editor’s desk Another record year
As the skyline of 2018 fades behind us in the rearview mirror and we look ahead to the new year, I see
much to be excited about in photonics technologies, applications, and markets. Despite economic head-
winds and turmoil due to worldwide macroeconomic softening, uncertainties in key areas of foreign
trade, and the threat of an all-out trade war between the U.S. and China, it looks like 2018 was another
record year for laser sales. Our Annual Laser Market Review & Forecast article in this issue reports that
total global laser sales are expected to grow 5.3% from $13.07 billion in 2017 to $13.76 billion in 2018.
And for 2019, we expect a 6.11% increase, reaching $14.6 billion (see page 40). Each segment of the la-
ser market faces its own dynamics, of course, with lasers for materials processing the largest, followed
by communications and R&D and military. The medical segment has been experiencing very interesting
developments and resilient growth, along with certain niche industries maintaining positive momentum.
Kicking off 2019, we have a preview of SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco (February 2-7), which is ex-
pected to host more than 23,000 attendees, 1350 exhibitors, and 5200 technical presentations—see page 29
to find out which sessions are of particular interest to the Laser Focus World editors. Next, we have two articles
on high-power diode lasers. The first (see page 77) covers R&D at Berlin Adlershof, which has resulted in de-
sign improvements for high-power diode lasers that are boosting efficiency, peak power, brilliance, and range
of emission spectra. The second (see page 97) discusses recent advances in diode packaging and implementa-
tion that are transforming the utility and economics of applications for high-power diode lasers.
We also explore flexible optics (see page 16), superresolution fluorescence imaging (see page 24),
and how deconvolution algorithms improve confocal imaging resolution (see page 86).
However, the list of topics reflecting other technology trends this issue goes on, ranging from
nanoparticles that enhance optical coating performance (see page 71), quantum secured communica-
John Lewis tions (see page 81), and spectrally tunable light sources (see page 89), to gravity-free optical fiber man-
Editor in Chief ufacturing (see page 93) and how novel, tunable lasers enable new nanoimaging techniques (see page
johnml@pennwell.com 103). As always, I hope you enjoy this issue.
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newsbreaks
Near-infrared light and paraffin enable
microfluidics on graphene substrates
Microfluidic systems depend on the controllable movement
of liquids or liquid droplets on the surface of a substrate. Un- a) b) c)
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(INRS-EMT; Varennes, QC, Canada) have qudit cluster states that are equivalent to the number of pulses) generating a time-
prepared and coherently manipulated dis- the realization of a quantum computer, based d-level two-photon state. One
crete d-level multipartite quantum systems as well as the first proof-of-concept dem- pulse exciting the nonlinear resonant me-
based on frequency-time hyper-entan- onstration of high-dimensional one-way dium (microring resonator) additional-
gled two photon states. To do so, they use quantum processing. ly generates a frequency-based d-level
integrated photonic chips and fiber-op- The photon pairs (signal and idler) photon state. Together, this creates a d-
tic telecommunications components. The are simultaneously generated in a four- level hyperentangled multipartite state.
demonstration is the first experimental re- wave mixing process as a superposition Next, frequency-to-time mapping is ac-
alization and characterization of so-called of several time modes (d = 3, given by complished using a fiber Bragg grating
(FBG) array in a phase-stable loop config-
uration, transforming the hyperentangled
state into a three-level four-partite cluster
state using an appropriate phase pattern.
These d-level cluster states can tolerate
up to 66.6% of incoherent noise com-
pared to only 50% for four- and six-qu-
bit cluster states. Furthermore, the team
transformed these cluster states into dif-
ferent orthogonal bi-partite states and
confirmed, through quantum interference
measurements, that the states are mutu-
ally orthogonal and entangled, enabling
powerful, noise-tolerant quantum opera-
tions using standard optical components.
Reference: C. Reimer et al., Nat. Phys.
Lett.; https://www.nature.com/articles/
s41567-018-0347-x (Dec. 3, 2018).
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Researchers at Rice University (Houston,
TX) have developed a method to make at-
om-flat sensors, including photosensors,
that seamlessly integrate with devices to
Visit us at Photonics West 2019 Booth 641 report on what they perceive. Electronical-
ly active 2D materials have been the sub-
ject of much research since the introduc-
tion of graphene in 2004. Even though
they are often touted for their strength,
they’re difficult to transfer to where they’re
needed without destroying them. The new
research provides a way to keep the mate-
www.toptica.com rials and their associated circuitry, includ-
ing electrodes, intact as they are moved to
curved or other smooth surfaces. The Rice
NSP side of a stripped optical fiber. Because it was so close, the near-
(for example,
spontaneous υ
field sensor coupled with the evanescent field of the fiber and ac-
a) ∆t
Δt four-wave mixing) curately detected the flow of information inside. The benefit is that
Signal these sensors can now be embedded into such fibers so that they
Nonlinear
medium can monitor performance without adding weight or hindering the
t
Idler signal flow—for example, to sense damage at any point along a
long telecommunications fiber.
Raw 2D materials are often moved with a layer of polymeth-
b) υ
Δυ yl methacrylate (PMMA) on top, and the Rice researchers make
Signal use of that technique. But they needed a robust bottom layer
that would not only keep the circuit intact during the move, but
t
Idler could also be removed before attaching the device to its target.
∝ 1/Δυ
Cavity
(The PMMA is also removed when the circuit reaches its desti-
nation.) The ideal solution was polydimethylglutarimide (PMGI),
∆t which can be used as a device fabrication platform and easily
c) υ
Δt Δυ etched away before transfer to the target. PMGI appears to work
Signal for any 2D material, as the researchers experimented successful-
t ly with molybdenum diselenide and other materials as well. The
Idler researchers have only developed passive sensors so far, but they
∝ 1/Δυ believe their technique will make active sensors or devices possi-
ble for telecommunication, biosensing, plasmonics, and other ap-
team tested the concept by making a 10-nm-thick indium selenide plications. Reference: Z. Jin et al., ACS Nano (2018); https://doi.
(InSe) photodetector with gold electrodes and placing it onto the org/10.1021/acsnano.8b07159.
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world news Technical advances from around the globe
Optical lead
testing
See page 16
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tablet camera (a bit like a contact lens, the Pb2+ in water. They dissolved
without glue or attachments), and to be varying amounts of Pb2+ (1.37–175
removed just as easily without leaving ppb) in tap water and added chromate
residue. It is scratch-resistant and can ions (CrO 42–), which react with Pb2+ to
be reused repeatedly without losing produce highly insoluble lead chromate
its ability to adhere. Now, DotLens is (PbCrO 4) nanoparticles. The system
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that drinking water should contain <15 • Chemically Resistant
parts per billion (ppb) of lead; a smartphone-based dark-field imaging microscope can detect
• Dielectric/Metallic Beamsplitters
lead at 5 ppb in tap water and 1.37 ppb in deionized water using a single-step sedimentation
approach that relies on a powerful optopolymer-based flexible lens. (Image credit: DotLens)
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produced with a 3D printing system that proved able to detect the resulting vivid
leaves the lenses free of layering defects yellow PbCrO 4 precipitates, and the North American Coating Laboratories
is certified to ISO 9001 with Design.
typical for extrusion-type 3D printers. researchers discovered that the sum of With over 45 years of coating experience.
the yellow pixels’ intensity has a highly
Exceeding standards reproducible relationship with Pb2+ con-
According to the World Health Organiza- centration (5–175 ppb in tap water, and Best
Service
tion, no amount of lead exposure is con- 1.37–175 ppb in deionized water).
sidered safe. Even small amounts can Because the quantity of sediment was
produce serious health problems, and too small for imaging by an unaided
lead is particularly harmful to young smartphone camera, the lens was essen-
children. EPA standards require drinking tial for detecting relatively low levels of
water to test at less than 15 parts per lead. And whereas traditional colorimet-
billion (ppb), but according to Shih, test ric techniques analyze bulk color changes,
kits currently sold to consumers aren’t the SNC device produces superior sensi-
sufficiently sensitive to detect lead con- tivity through nanocolorimetry and dark-
centrations at that level. By contrast, the field microscopy.—Barbara Gefvert
researchers’ dark-field imaging mode
proved able to detect lead at 5 ppb in tap REFERENCES
1. H. Nguyen et al., Anal. Chem., 90, 19, 11517–
water and 1.37 ppb in deionized water
11522 (2018).
(see figure). 2. Y. Sung et al., J. Biomed. Opt., 20, 4, 047005 North American Coating Labs
Applying their 2017 dataset, the (2015). 866-216-6225
researchers used a single-step sedimen- 3. Y. Sung et al., Biomed. Opt. Express, 8, 11,
NACL.COM
5075–5086 (2017).
tation approach to detect and quantify
OR BI TA L A NGU L A R MOM EN T U M
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8:21 AM
The first Orbital Launch
The first successful orbital launch was of the
Soviet unmanned Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957.
The satellite is believed to have orbited Earth at
a height of about 250 km (160 mi).
Question:
How long was it in space?
92 days
t s k i n d
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world news
Donut waveguides researchers were able to design a wave- in through polished ends of the chip and
Knowing that the typical transverse inten- guide through solution of Maxwell’s equa- then measured after interfering with a
sity pattern of an OAM beam is donut- tions for OAM modes using a first-order Gaussian beam. The resultant spiral inter-
shaped, the researchers created a wave- perturbative analysis to create a three- ference patterns are obtained directly
guide with a donut-shaped cross-section dimensional, femtosecond-laser-direct- by a CCD camera. The chirality and the
that is cylindrically symmetric. And, under- written waveguide designed to preserve number of arms in the measured inter-
standing that total internal reflection can OAM mode integrity. ference patterns can clearly tell the topo-
lead to polarization anomalies such as For a 19.64 mm donut-shaped wave- logical charge of the OAM light. To be
phase shifts at index discontinuities, the guide within a chip, OAM light is coupled specific, the clockwise (counterclockwise)
chirality indicates the positive (negative)
topological charge, and the number of
arms indicates the order.
The waveguide designed for the exper-
iments supports OAM0, OAM+1, and
OAM-1 modes. Analysis of higher-order
modes was made possible by optimizing
the donut-shaped structure in terms of its
size and refractive index distribution.
For experiments with both standard
low-order modes and higher-order modes
(see figure), it was found that the wave-
guide transmitted lower-order modes with
an approximate 60% efficiency, meaning
that OAM light can be easily mapped
into and out of the chip (the total loss—
including the transmission process—is
only 40%). However, this efficiency drops
High-speed Wavemeters rather dramatically to around 25% for
higher-order modes because of the fact
that the OAM waveguide hasn’t yet been
optimized to support higher-order modes.
> 75 kHz data recording
“Our work provides the first photonic
chip being capable of supporting OAM
> 3 kHz live measurement modes, which opens up an entirely new
field, ‘twisted-light-inside integrated pho-
< 2 MHz absolute accuracy tonics,’ not only for optical communi-
cations, but also for optical processing,
< 200 kHz resolution imaging, and quantum computing,” says
Xianmin Jin at Shanghai Jiao Tong Uni-
versity. “To simultaneously support many
more OAM modes is very likely; in fact,
Visit us at Photonics West 2019 Booth 641
we are working on extending the sup-
ported modes to very high order and have
recently obtained results that are very
encouraging. Another fascinating thing
is to directly generate OAM light inside
our OAM waveguide chip; however, this
mission is much more challenging.”
—Gail Overton
www.toptica.com
REFERENCE
www.highfinesse.com 1. Y. Chen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 121, 233602
(Dec. 7, 2018).
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world news
ILLU M I N ATI O N
1901LFW015-028.indd
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world news
To fabricate the SEEOR, multiple thin-film waveguide layers are was coupled in free space to the input facet of the SEEOR.
first applied to a 48.5-mm-long, 14.5-mm-wide, faceted (3 mm The beam was captured by an infrared camera as voltage
long with 39º angle) 2.75-mm-thick doped-silicon substrate. The was applied to the in-plane and out-of-plane electrodes on
waveguide subcladding has a refractive index lower than either the cover glass. Beam steering capabilities previously men-
the substrate or the core and is tapered in the incoupling and out- tioned were confirmed through experimentation with steering
coupling regions of the SEEOR (see figure). Light is coupled in voltages up to 500 V.
or out of the faceted region of the slab waveguide in an Ulrich To increase the in-plane and out-of-plane steering capability
coupler configuration and travels to the core, which is comprised and transmission, modifications can be made to the propagation
of chalcogenide glass (amorphous semiconductors that contain length, facet angle optimization, electrode design modification, or
one or more of the “chalcogen” elements—sulfur, selenium, and the application of antireflective coatings on the face surfaces.
tellurium—as a major constituent) of the formula arsenic selenide “Developing this MWIR beam-steering technology required
(As2Se3) with a higher refractive index than the arsenic sulfide us to solve a series of challenging problems—new waveguide
(As2S3) subcladding. The core, subcladding, and substrate can designs and fabrication techniques, new LC compositions, new
transmit beams through the entire mid-IR spectrum. LC alignment techniques, all of which had to be compatible with
The top cladding of the waveguide is a liquid crystal (LC) layer MWIR light,” said Jesse Frantz, head of the NRL Specialty Wave-
that resides between the core and an electrode-patterned cover guides Section. “We hope to see NRL’s MWIR SEEOR technology
glass. On top of the core as well as on the electrode side of the cover replace mechanical beam steerers, especially in situations where
glass is a few-nanometer-thick LC alignment layer that induces the SWaP is a big concern. To give an example, consider a small UAV
rod-shaped LC molecules to align. When a voltage is applied to the [unmanned aerial vehicle] surveying for methane leaks. It can’t
LC between the top electrode and the substrate, which serves as a carry a big payload, but steering a MWIR beam is critical for this
bottom electrode, it causes the LC molecules to re-orient, changing application.”—Gail Overton
the effective index in the waveguide and thus steering the beam.
To test the device operation, a 4.6 µm, 40 mW quan- REFERENCE
1. J. A. Frantz et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 35, 12, C29–C37 (2018).
tum-cascade laser (QCL), conditioned by collimating optics,
D ETEC TI O N
• Lasers & Illumination
• Optics & Optomechanics
• Sensors & Detection
• Electronic Components & Systems
• Sophisticated Custom Solutions
is now part of
EXCELITAS TECHNOLOGIES
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world news
5 µm Teaching intelligence
As part of their experiments, the researchers used thousands of
A laptop-based deep learning system converts low-resolution
microphotographs of cell and tissue samples taken by five types
fluorescence microscopy images (a) into superresolution images (b)
that compare favorably with images produced using high-resolution
of fluorescence microscopes. They input the images into their
equipment (c); images on the bottom row depict detail from those on computer in matched pairs of low- and superresolution depictions
the top row. (Courtesy of Ozcan lab, UCLA) of the same sample.
CONFIDENCE IN METROLOGY.
www.zygo.com
24ZygoCorp_LFW_1901
January 2019 1 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser1/8/19
Focus1:57
World
PM
The computer learned from those images using a “genera- can alter the behavior of cells, or damage or kill them. And in the
tive adversarial network,” an AI model in which two algorithms study, it outperformed other resolution-enhancement algorithms.
compete. One algorithm works to produce computer-generated “Our system learns various types of transformations that you
superresolution output from a low-resolution input image. The cannot model because they are random in some sense, or very
second algorithm attempts to differentiate between the resulting difficult to measure, enabling us to enhance microscopy images
computer-generated image and its superresolution counterpart at a scale that is unprecedented,” says graduate student Hongda
produced by an advanced microscopy system. Wang, the other co-first author of the study.
Each type of subject requires only one such “training”—after
that, the network can transform unfamiliar low-resolution images Honor-worthy
to achieve the level of detail produced by a superresolution It’s work like this that got Ozcan elected a fellow of the National
microscope. The study demonstrated that contrast and depth of Academy of Inventors in December 2018. The honor is given to
field were also improved. academic inventors demonstrating “a prolific spirit of innovation
In the study, the system transformed wide-field images in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made
acquired with low-numerical-aperture (NA) objectives into a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and
images matching the resolution of images captured using welfare of society.”
high-NA objectives (see figure). It also accomplished cross- The month prior, he was elected a fellow of the American
modality conversions, converting confocal images to match the Association for the Advancement of Science. That honor recog-
resolution of images produced by a stimulated emission deple- nizes major efforts that have advanced science or its applications
tion (STED) microscope, for instance, and using standard total either scientifically or socially. It cited Ozcan for his “distinguished
internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy imagery to contributions to photonics research and technology development
achieve results obtained with TIRF-based structured illumina- on computational imaging, sensing, and diagnostics systems,
tion microscopy. impacting telemedicine and global health applications.”
Naturally, the approach avoids subjecting new samples to the NAI highlighted Ozcan’s pioneering and high-impact inven-
intense light used in standard superresolution microscopy, which tions (in mobile health, telemedicine, microscopy, sensing, and
1901LFW015-028.indd1 25
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world news
diagnostics) with the potential to dramat- smartphone-based diagnostic test reader database.—Barbara Gefvert
ically increase access to medical technolo- facilitates medical field work in remote
REFERENCE
gies in resource-limited settings and devel- locations, providing ease of use, speedy 1. H. Wang et al., Nat. Methods, 16, 103–110
oping countries. His company Cellmic’s test results, and linkage to a central (2019)
L A S E R M I C R O FA B R I C AT I O N
26EvapCoa_LFW_1901
January 20191 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser1/2/19
Focus9:23
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Photonics West
Booth 1834
February 5-7, 2019
Lightning II FX ª
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PHOTONICS WEST CONFERENCE PREVIEW
principles and comparison of different IR detectors and infor- of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will present “Cassini’s
mation on IR detector nonlinearity correction. Grand Finale: Going Out in a Blaze of Glory,” describing the
And don’t forget, for those with a particular interest in the Cassini Program—from its beginning in 2004 exploring the
laser industry, Laser Focus World will once again present its Saturn system and concluding with a spectacular plunge into
2019 Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar on February Saturn’s atmosphere in September 2017. He will present high-
4th at the Marriott Marquis, just adjacent to the Moscone con- lights from 13 years of exploration as well as the engineer-
vention center. The Seminar features keynote presentations ing and scientific rationale behind the mission’s final scenar-
from Ralf Kimmel of Trumpf and Matthijs Glastra of Novan- io and some of the complexities of an entirely new mission for
ta, along with interactive panels on precision optics and quan- an aging spacecraft. Yuji Sano of Japan Science and Technol-
tum technologies that are facilitating new innovations in pho- ogy Agency will present “Quarter Century Development of
tonics and driving laser sales. Laser Peening and Recent Strides toward Expansion of Appli-
cations,” discussing underwater laser ablation (laser peening)
LASE Symposium that generates high-pressure plasma exceeding the gigapascal
Speaking of lasers, this year’s LASE Symposium features four level and will also discuss the recently developed femtosecond
conference tracks: Laser Sources (Conferences 10896-10901), laser peening, which extends applications to integrated sys-
Nonlinear Optics and Beam Guiding (10902-10904), Micro/ tems and components in space. And a third plenary by Gün-
Nano Applications (10905-10908), and Macro Applications ther Tränkle from Ferdinand Braun Institute describes, as its
(10909-10911). title states, “High Power Laser Diodes: Improvements in Pow-
With 810 total presentations, the LASE Symposium spans er, Efficiency, and Brilliance.”
nearly all fields related to laser R&D and commercialization, Among the four LASE conference tracks, the Laser Sources
including sources, laser-matter interactions, materials process- track alone includes 301 total papers, comprised of a plenary pre-
ing, and 3D printing. sentation, two keynotes, 41 invited presentations, 205 contributed
Among the LASE highlights are the plenary presentations papers, and 52 poster papers. In addition to these presentations,
on Monday, February 4th, from 3:30-5:40 p.m. Earl H. Maize a panel discussion on the “Future Direction of High-Power Di-
ode Laser Technology and Applications” is planned on Monday,
February 4th from 8-9 a.m. in Conference 10900: High-Power
Diode Laser Technology XVII.
Laser Sources track chairs Kunihiko Washio of Paradigm La-
ser Research and John Ballato of Clemson University said that
conference submissions reveal a couple of noteworthy key tech-
nology trends—namely, a remarkable increase in power and
brightness in a broad spectral range for lasers, including eye-
safe and mid-infrared (mid-IR), as well as visible and the near-
IR region, and many novel laser concepts and technologies that
are emerging for solid-state, fiber, and diode lasers.
In addition to recommending attendance at the aforemen-
tioned plenary sessions and the keynote presentation on “Mid-
IR VECSELs” from Marcel Rattunde of the Fraunhofer-In-
stitut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik, Washio and Ballato
wanted to highlight the following papers. Please note that if you
enter the full title of the paper in the search bar at https://spie.
org/conferences-and-exhibitions/photonics-west/lase, the date
and time of the paper is listed below the link that takes you to
the individual paper listing with paper number, authors, a link
to the abstract, as well as a link that lets you add the paper to
your schedule.
Among the invited LASE papers, the chairs recommend
1) “Compact, efficient Tm:YAP pumped mid-IR OPO”; 2)
“High-power ultrafast Tm-doped fiber lasers for the generation
of mid-infrared radiation in the molecular fingerprint region”; 3)
“High-power, all-fiber-integrated super-continuum source from
1.57 to 12 microns”; 4) “Soliton Self-Mode Conversion (SSMC):
Power-scalable frequency conversion with multimode fibers”;
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PHOTONICS WEST CONFERENCE PREVIEW c o nt i n u e d
5) “Recent devel-
a) b) c)
opment of the Ori-
on Laser facility and
future perspectives”;
and 6) “Breath ace-
tone analysis using
a broadly-tunable
mid-IR VECSEL”.
Washio and Bal- FIGURE 2. One of the papers recommended in the LASE Symposium is “1000 W blue fiber-coupled diode-laser
lato also recom- emitting at 450 nm” to be presented by Anne Balck at Laserline (Germany). This blue laser is powerful enough to weld
mend numerous pa- copper (a), as evidenced by the cross-section of a butt-welded joint (b) and an edge-welded configuration (c) for 34
pers on high-power stacked copper foils (each 11 µm thick). (Image credit: Laserline)
blue lasers for ma-
terials processing applications, includ- wanted to highlight “Light detection and optical technology strategy at Facebook,
ing 1) “500 Watt blue laser system for ranging with a single free-running du- gives a talk, “Hyperscale Data Center
welding applications”; 2) “1000 W blue al-comb semiconductor disk laser” from Applications of Optoelectronics,” in
fiber-coupled diode-laser emitting at 450 ETH Zurich. which she details the various uses of op-
nm” (see Fig. 2); 3) “High brightness fi- toelectronics in the networks for hyper-
ber coupled diode lasers at 450 nm”; 4) OPTO Symposium scale data centers that provide the base for
“High-power and brightness 105-mi- Optics and photonics have a big role in our digital world. She discusses the next
cron fiber coupled blue laser diode mod- shaping our future, a fact emphasized move for photonics, which is to handle
ules”; and 5) “Development of BLUE IM- in the three OPTO plenary sessions, all distances of <3 m for in-rack applications.
PACT, a 450-nm-wavelength light source held on Monday morning. Katharine Next, Susumu Noda of Kyoto University
for laser processing.” In addition, they Schmidtke, who is responsible for presents “Two Decades of Progress for
Photonic Crystals: From the Realization
of Complete 3D Crystals to the State of
the Art for Society 5.0,” in which he pro-
vides both an overview and the very latest
technology on photonic crystals, including
for lidar, materials processing, and ther-
mal-emission shaping. Finally, Aydogan
Ozcan of the California NanoSystems
Institute and the University of California,
Los Angeles (whom the Laser Focus
World audience knows well from his re-
search into field-portable smartphone mi-
croscopes) will delve into the use of deep
learning for optical microscopy and mi-
croscopic image reconstruction, including
the fabrication of a deep-learning neural
network (see Fig. 3).
OPTO conference program tracks this
year include Optoelectronic Materials and
Devices; Photonic Integration; Nanotech-
nologies in Photonics; MOEMS-MEMS in
Photonics; Advanced Quantum and Op-
toelectronic Applications; Semiconductor
Lasers, LEDs, and Applications; Displays
| China and Holography; and Optical Communi-
cations: Devices to Systems.
Tuesday’s “Electrical-Optical PCB
info@prior.com prior.com 781 878 8442 Technologies” session topic fits right in
with Schmidtke’s Optoelectronics plenary
talk. For example, a group from Shanghai high-beam-quality VCSEL amplifiers” When it’s
Jiao Tong University gives the session’s in-
vited paper on single-mode polymer wave-
(paper 10938-8), by researchers from Fuji
Xerox and the Tokyo Institute of Technol- Mission
guides and devices for high-speed on-
board optical interconnect applications,
ogy, covers single-mode continuous-wave
(CW) millimeter-scale VCSEL structures
Critical
while a team of Chinese and Finnish sci- useful for direct semiconductor laser pro-
entists presents on large-size directly in- cessing and 3D sensing. “VCSELs in short-
scribed polymer waveguide devices for pulse operation for time-of-flight applica-
card-to-card optical interconnect appli- tions” (paper 10938-13), by a group from
cation (paper 10924-5); both these top- Philips Photonics, describes pulsed VCSEL
ics will aid tighter optical integration of modules as well as results from reliabili-
the datacenter. In Tuesday’s “Hybrid In- ty experiments that indicate the limits of
tegrated Optical Link Modules” session, overpulsing, as well as the sweet spot for
a group from integrated-optics giant Li- array design.
oniX discusses “Hybrid interconnection “Gallium Nitride Materials and Devic-
of InP [indium phosphide] and TriPleX es XIV” covers leading-edge short-wave-
[silicon nitride] photonic integrated cir- length semiconductor light sources such as
cuits for new module functionality”; the optically pumped deep-UV lasers grown
InP-TriPleX combination are two com- on native aluminum nitride (AlN) sub-
plementary technologies enabling new strates (paper 10918-17), where a 193 nm
functionalities—for example, the use of excimer laser pumps an AlGaN structure,
tunable ultranarrow-linewidth lasers for resulting in a laser peak at 278 nm with a
telecom and sensing applications. 0.08 nm linewidth at room temperature.
A team from San-
Network Network Training dia National Labs
inputs 2 µm inputs labels
2 µm and the University
M
M×L M×L
of New Mexico dis-
pixels
pixels pixels cusses “Nonpolar
M pixels
M×L pixels M×L pixels
InGaN/GaN core-
M Deep shell single nanow-
pixels convolutional
neural network M×L M×L ire lasers” (paper
M pixels under training pixels pixels 10918-37), cover-
which enhances the central contrast by display based on angle-multiplexing tech- performance of mini-LED backlit LCDs,
considering human visual characteristics. nology, while the second contains a com- including their advantages and remaining
The “Augmented reality 3D display sys- pact lenticular lens-array HOE using di- technical challenges.
tem based on holographic optical element” vergent light as the reference beam. A team
presentation (paper 10942-2) includes de- from CREOL, The College of Optics and AR/VR/MR Conference
scriptions of two AR 3D display systems Photonics, University of Central Florida The second annual AR/VR/MR (aug-
based on integral imaging using a micro- discusses “Emerging high-dynamic-range mented, virtual, and mixed reality)
lens array of holographic optical elements mini-LED displays” (paper 10942-4), an Conference will be held Feb. 3-4 (Sunday
(HOEs). The first is a dual-view-zone 3D analysis of the system configuration and and Monday; note that, although the con-
ference is free, you must register. Speakers
for 2019 include well-known names from
both the commercial world and academia:
Bernard Kress (Microsoft HoloLens), Jerry
Carollo (Google), Ronald Azuma (Intel),
Behnam Bastani (Oculus Facebook),
Federico Capasso (Harvard), Hong Hua
(University of Arizona), Jannick Rolland
(University of Rochester), Robert Schultz
Analyze laser-material (Vuzix), and many others.
interaction with simulation. An interactive panel session with some
of the biggest names in VR, AR, and MR
includes pioneers in smart glasses, cryp-
tography and more: Jaron Lanier, a VR
pioneer as well as a computer philosophy
writer, computer scientist, visual artist,
and composer of classical music; Mark
Bolas, a VR pioneer who helped jumpstart
the technology, now at Microsoft work-
ing on the “vision strategy” for Micro-
soft’s Mixed Reality platform; Mary Lou
Jepsen, a veteran technologist whose new
startup is developing wearable diagnos-
tics made from consumer electronic parts
that cost as much as a smartphone; Ronald
Azuma, innovator in AR, visualization,
and mobile applications at HRL Labs,
Nokia Research Center, and Intel Labs;
Thad Starner, early smart glasses pioneer,
Visualization of a laser beam focused through two lenses. The focal and founder and director of the Contex-
point shifts as the lenses heat up due to the high-intensity laser light. tual Computing Group at Georgia Tech’s
College of Computing; and Jim Melzer
(Thales Visionix), one of the pioneers for
Laser-material interaction, and the subsequent heating, is
often studied with simulation using one of several modeling defense and military head-mounted dis-
techniques. To select the most suitable approach, you can plays (HMDs). Don’t forget to bring your
use information such as the material’s optical properties, questions to this panel session.
the relative sizes of the objects to be heated, and the laser Courses at the AR/VR/MR Confer-
wavelength and beam characteristics as a guide. For the ence include Design Techniques and Ap-
simulation, you can use COMSOL Multiphysics®.
plications; Optical Technologies and Ar-
The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is used for simulating chitectures for VR, AR, and MR HMDs;
designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering,
Introduction to VR, AR, MR, and Smart
manufacturing, and scientific research. See how you can apply
it to modeling laser-material interactions. Eyewear; Designing and Specifying Dig-
ital Cameras; HMD Requirements and
comsol.blog/laser-heating
Designs for AR; and others. Hands-on
1901LFW029-039.indd
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PHOTONICS WEST CONFERENCE PREVIEW c o nt i n u e d
headset demos will be ongoing both Sun- mini-spectrometers with micro-opto-elec- Hot Topics Plenary on Saturday from 7-9
day and Monday. tro-mechanical systems (MOEMS)-fabri- p.m. that few open seats will remain in the
In addition, the 2019 Optical Design cated shortwave near-infrared (SWNIR) cavernous theater. The evening will begin
Challenge will be held on Sunday. There, sensor heads (see Fig. 4), and Cyberdyne’s with the presentation of the 2019 Biopho-
students from a variety of institutions will LED-based photoacoustic/ultrasound im- tonics Technology Innovator Award to Ste-
show off their leading-edge R&D aimed aging system with functional, molecular, phen Boppart of the University of Illinois
at improving any aspects of the optics in and structural imaging capabilities. at Urbana-Champaign. The award honors
VR, AR, and MR. The day will include Even after a full day at the exhibits, Boppart’s achievement in computational
poster sessions, pitches, an award cere- so many attendees will flock to the BiOS optical coherence tomography (OCT) and
mony, and a reception.
BiOS Symposium
The Biomedical Optics Symposium
(BiOS)—SPIE’s largest symposium at
Photonics West—has been chaired for
many years by two distinguished leaders
in the field, James Fujimoto of MIT and R.
Rox Anderson of the Wellman Center for
Photomedicine, Massachusetts General
Hospital and Harvard School of Medicine.
While continuing in their capacity for the
2019 event, the duo is joined by anoth-
er pair of respected researchers as BiOS’s
first co-chairs: Jennifer Barton from the
University of Arizona, and Wolfgang
Drexler from the Medical University of
Vienna, Austria. Barton and Drexler have
in past years chaired the International
Biomedical Optics Society (IBOS), and
while the IBOS evening gathering will not
take place in 2019, there are plenty of al-
ternatives for attendees, starting with the
BiOS Expo.
Featuring more than 200 exhibits, the
expo will open February 2 (10 a.m. to 5
p.m. Saturday and Sunday). Expo-goers
can expect an array of product demonstra-
tions and new-product debuts, including
Hamamatsu’s SMD-series grating-based
Optimax Capabilities
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2:04 PM
P H O T O N I C S W E S T C O N F E R E N C E P R E V I E W continued
its applications to basic and clinical sci- Clare Elwell of University College Lon-
ences. Boppart’s work will be represented don will discuss frontiers in near-IR spec-
in three presentations at BiOS, one cov- troscopy, and Zhiwei Huang of National
ering molecular histopathology with si- University of Singapore will explain spec-
multaneous label-free auto-fluorescence troscopic cancer detection. Multispectral DC-DC
CONVERTERS
multi-harmonic (SLAM) microscopy, an- optoacoustic tomography is the topic that
other on real-time multimodal multipho- Daniel Razansky of University of Zurich
ton imaging for assessing tumor microen- and ETH Zurich will cover, and Eva Se-
vironments intraoperatively, and a third vick of the University of Texas Houston
discussing coherent control of opsins in will present a view on aging through the
living brain tissue. lens of translational biomedical optics. An-
Following that will be presentation of other Washington University at St. Louis
the SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Postdoctor- faculty member, Srikanth Singamaneni,
al Fellowship in Problem-Driven Biopho- will present a fluorescence enhancer called
tonics and Biomedical Optics. This award the plasmonic patch, and Alexander Vahr-
was launched in 2018, and the inaugural meijer of Leiden University Medical Center
honoree was Haley Marks, a postdoctoral will explain how targeted molecular imag-
researcher at the Well- ing facilitates precision NEW AVP/AVN SERIES!
man Center for Photo- surgery. Finally, Chris 10,000 VDC Outputs
medicine at Massachu- Xu of Cornell Univer-
setts General Hospital, sity will report new ad- Now in Miniature Design
working on a lumines-
cent oxygen-sensing,
vances in multiphoton
imaging, and Yoshia- 0.5” x 1.0” x 0.5”
drug-releasing SMART ki Yasuno of Universi-
(for Sensing, Monitor- ty of Tsukuba will close • Isolated • High Reliability
ing, And Release of out the evening by in- • 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 VDC,
Therapeutics) bandage troducing the concept positive and negative output models
that provides quantita- of extending OCT to- • 1.25 watt output power, -25˚ to +70˚C
tive visual feedback for ward multiple-contrast operating temperature standard,
clinical treatment guid- imaging. no de rating
ance. The 2019 winner In a similar vein, the • 5-12-15-24 and 28 VDC inputs standard
will be announced at FIGURE 5. Samuel Achilefu will be 2019 Neurotechnol- • Military Upgrades Available
honored with the Britton Chance
the event. ogies Plenary Session Expanded operating temperature, -55˚ to
Biomedical Optics award during the
The final award pre- BiOS Hot Topics 2019 plenary event (part of the SPIE Brain +85˚C available - Selected MIL-STD-883
sentation of the evening Saturday evening. (Image credit: Symposium) on Sun- screeening available
is the Britton Chance Samuel Achilefu) day, 3:30-5:30 p.m., • Free review of any additional requirements
Biomedical Optics will highlight advances and specifications you may have to
Award, which goes to Samuel Achilefu in neurophotonics through talks by eight
comply with
of Washington University School of Medi- researchers. Subjects include Miniscope, a • Fully encapsulated for use in harsh
cine in St. Louis for 2019 (see Fig. 5). This project for developing imaging technolo-
environmental conditions
award is presented each year for outstand- gy via an open-source platform; 3D brain For full characteristics of these and the
entire PICO product line, see PICO’s
ing lifetime contributions through devel- imaging in freely moving mice with mul-
Full line catalog at
opment of innovative technologies that tiphoton microscopy; the use of function-
have facilitated advancements in biolo- al near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to www.picoelectronics.com
gy or medicine. Achilefu is being hon- objectively assess surgical skills; human
ored for his work in optical and molecu- brain interferometers to improve blood PICO ELECTRONICS, Inc.
lar imaging that enable cancer care and flow monitoring; and the creation of tools 143 Sparks Ave., Pelham, New York 10803
treatment. Following his award presen- for the functional analysis of neural cir- Call Toll Free 800-431-1064
tation, Achilefu will make the evening’s cuitry. An expert in imaging of cleared FAX 914-738-8225
first technical presentation. specimens, Raju Tomer of Columbia Uni- E Mail: info@picoelectronics.com
Then, Sergio Fantini of Tufts Universi- versity will report the use of light-sheet
ty will facilitate the remaining presenta- theta microscopy to quantitatively image
tions, starting with two on spectroscopy: large cleared samples. The plenary will
conclude with a panel discussion mod- that served to enable precision instrumen- Hess of Columbia University will explain
erated by Edmund Talley, a program di- tation for research, medicine, and other how “motor proteins” such as kinesin
rector at the National Institute of Neuro- applications. can serve as biological components in
logical Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Finally, at the Nano/Biophotonics Ple- engineered nanosystems, and describe a
A third plenary session on Sunday from nary (Tuesday 10:30-11:30 a.m.), Henry proof-of-principle application: a “smart
7:15-8 p.m. will feature No- dust” biosensor for remote
bel laureate and former Op- detection of biological and
tical Society (OSA) presi- chemical agents.
dent Donna Strickland of Saturday’s Translation-
the University of Water- al Research Lunchtime Fo-
loo (see Fig. 6). Strickland rum (12:30-2 p.m.) will
shared the 2018 Prize “for include presentations
groundbreaking inventions by selected participants
in the field of laser physics.” from the Translational
One half of the prize went Research virtual sympo-
to Arthur Ashkin “for the sium demonstrating inno-
optical tweezers and their vative application of opti-
application to biological cal/light-based techniques
systems” and the other that aim to improve out-
half jointly to Strickland comes for patients.
FIGURE 6. Donna Strickland of the University of Waterloo is the featured
and Gérard Mourou “for speaker at a BiOS plenary session on Sunday from 7:15-8 p.m. The former Monday’s SPIE Fellow
their method of generating OSA president became the third woman ever to receive a Nobel Prize in Member Luncheon, while
high-intensity, ultra-short Physics (and the first in 55 years), when the 2018 Prize committee recognized not a BiOS event, will fo-
optical pulses”—inventions her work in ultrashort light pulses. (Image credit: University of Waterloo) cus on biomedical optics.
1901LFW029-039.indd
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1:58 PM
PHOTONICS WEST CONFERENCE PREVIEW c o nt i n u e d
Elizabeth Krupinski of Emory Universi- will feature semifinalists pitching their review and regulatory approval for med-
ty will explain how artificial intelligence business concepts to judges who will de- ical devices, and communicate effective-
(AI) boosts the efficacy and efficiency of termine which contestants will move on ly with the FDA.
medical imaging, and important consid- to the finals. Then on Wednesday (3:30- As in 2018, the BiOS conferences are
erations for AI to enable success and im- 6 p.m.), the main event—the SPIE Startup organized into six tracks (Photonic Thera-
proved patient care. Challenge Finals—will give the top two en- peutics and Diagnostics; Neurophotonics,
BiOS poster sessions will take place to- trants from each semi-final track five min- Neurosurgery, and Optogenetics; Clinical
ward the end of each day Saturday (5:15- utes each to explain their photonics-based Technologies and Systems; Tissue Optics,
6:45 p.m.) through Monday (5:30-7 p.m.). business vision to a panel of judges. The Laser-Tissue Interaction, and Tissue En-
Student presentations selected from these top presenter will go home with $10,000 gineering; Biomedical Spectroscopy, Mi-
will participate in Monday’s (4:15-5:15 in cash from Jenoptik and $5000 of equip- croscopy, and Imaging; and Nano/Bio-
p.m.) 3-Minute Poster Presentation ses- ment from Edmund Optics. photonics). Plus, Photonics West features
sion sponsored by two journals, the Jour- BiOS 2019 will feature a baker’s doz- three new “application tracks” (apparent-
nal of Biomedical Optics and Neuropho- en different Best Paper Awards to recog- ly virtual, meaning the presentations are
tonics. Judges will award cash prizes for nize, for instance, outstanding research in coordinated in terms of theme, but not or-
the top three vote-getters based on con- point-of-care diagnostics, or high-speed ganized in time or space), two of which
tent and presentation effectiveness. biomedical imaging and microscopy. are bio-focused: SPIE Brain 2019 includes
Another competition, the Startup Chal- Finally, a popular Food and Drug Ad- papers describing innovative technologies
lenge, has awarded most of its prizes to ministration (FDA)-focused annual ses- that promise to increase our understand-
biomedical optics entrepreneurs in past sion (Monday, 3:30-5:30 p.m.) will help ing of brain function, and SPIE Transla-
years. For 2019, the Startup Challenge academic investigators and entrepreneurs tional Research 2019 highlights papers
will break out semifinalist events by ap- incorporate regulatory requirements into showcases technologies, tools, and tech-
plication area. The Biophotonics & Point product development plans, produce suc- niques with potential for important im-
of Care Semi-Finals (Tuesday, 2-4 p.m.) cessful regulatory strategies, understand pact on healthcare.
What
goes up …
GAIL OVERTON, ALLEN NOGEE, DAVID BELFORTE,
JOHN WALLACE, and BARBARA GEFVERT
What a difference a year makes. In our 2018 Annual (Sunnyvale, CA) for $3.2 billion3 on the strength of
Laser Market Review & Forecast,1 growth in consumer Finisar’s VCSEL products that are sold into 3D sensing
electronics applications like sensing and lidar propelled applications for Apple iPhones.
demand for lasers in semiconductor and materials pro- Unfortunately, supplying high volumes of lasers to a
cessing applications to 2017 worldwide sales of $13.07 single corporate giant like Apple also increases expo-
billion—a 21.6% jump from 2016. And true to our pre- sure to risk; in late 2018, a series of downward fore-
diction that “We do see 2017, however, as an aberration casts4 saw stock prices suffer for both Apple and its sup-
and expect laser sales growth to return to more mod- pliers.5 Companies like Lumentum (Milpitas, CA) saw
erate growth for 2018 as capital equipment spending its stock drop nearly 29%6 on shipment pullbacks from
cools,” laser sales for 2018 are expected to grow 5.3% Apple for 3D sensing lasers.
to $13.76 billion. But who could predict the volatile mac- Besides high-volume supplier risks, an even bigger con-
roeconomic conditions that we face heading into 2019? cern is tariffs. “These tariff and trade-related headwinds
For the first time in nearly a decade, laser manufactur- were the primary driver of weaker-than-expected per-
ers are concerned that even a “slow and steady” 5–6% formance for our business in China and Europe,” said
sales growth rate could be in jeopardy. IPG Photonics (Oxford, MA) CEO Valentin Gapontsev
While the same factors that grew laser sales in recent in his Q3 2018 preliminary financials,7 after report-
years could easily shrink those sales if the worldwide ing record Q1 and Q2 earnings of approximately $360
economies head back into recession territory,2 the laser million and $414 million, respectively. The Q3 book-
industry continues to consolidate to maintain market to-bill ratio was just below 1.0, with IPG reporting Q3
dominance or to create new, vertically organized struc- sales of $356 million8—down 9% from the same quar-
tures to serve existing and evolving markets amid the ter last year. Anticipating more softening in order flow
economic turmoil. In late 2018, Illumina (San Diego, in Q4 2018, Gapontsev sees some relief in Q1 2019
CA) acquired rival Pacific Biosciences (Menlo Park, CA) on strength in consumer electronics and metal weld-
to maintain its top position in DNA sequencing instru- ing. “However,” he cautions, “our visibility of a trough
mentation. And II-VI (Saxonburg, PA) acquired Finisar in the current downcycle is limited by the uncertainty
ABOUT The estimates and forecasts of laser revenue are based on detailed market analyses by Allen Nogee, president of
Laser Markets Research, for Strategies Unlimited, a PennWell business that has been conducting market research
THE
in photonics for more than 31 years. The research considers both quarterly and long-term historical trends—
NUMBERS
results are then compared and adjusted each year to correct for known errors and sales additions/subtractions
from fourth-quarter fi nancial reports. Significantly more information is presented each year at the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace
Seminar (www.marketplaceseminar.com), held in conjunction with SPIE Photonics West, and in the annual Worldwide Market for
Lasers: Market Review and Forecast, available from Strategies Unlimited (http://www.strategies-u.com).
companies doing business in China and “How wide is the chasm?”,32 was less than this shortfall is expected to be around
Asia. Gu believes that both the U.S. and two years: by 2010, laser market sales had 400,000 welders by 2020, representing
China are trying to avoid the trade war nearly recovered to 2008 levels.33 significant growth potential.”
and may reach some short-term agree- And despite the economic downturns Laser companies that survived the tele-
ment to alleviate worldwide anxiety. of the past 20 years, some consumer de- com bubble of the early 2000s reinvented
“However,” he adds, “It will be difficult mands that drive laser sales never retreat. themselves, investing in R&D and tran-
to reach a long-term agreement before According to Nielsen’s Law of Internet sitioning from telecom-only to a diverse
some fundamental issues are resolved.” Bandwidth,34 for example, user Internet range of laser products that served grow-
Gu cautions, “Unfortunately, aggres- connection speed has grown 50% per ing markets. And should another recession
sive price reductions may have the 2019 year from 1983 to 2018. For lidar lasers materialize and significantly impact indus-
laser market seeing single-digit growth. enabling autonomous vehicles,35 global trial laser sales, for example, other laser
This price competition might be benefi- automobile sales36 have ramped exponen- market segments will emerge and thrive.
cial for end-user consumers for the short tially from around 40 million in the nine- While not entirely recession-proof, med-
term, but it means that the laser industry year period from 1990 to 1999 to an esti- ical laser markets see no sign of slowing as
is not making the margins it deserves, es- mated 80 million in 2018 alone. And for we head into 2019. Deloitte (New York,
pecially in China. And this is not healthy fans of sustainable technology, “Electric NY) predicts global healthcare spending37
for everyone in the long term.” vehicle growth will drive applications as- to grow at an annual rate of 4.1% from
sociated with conductive materials join- 2017 to 2021, driven by aging and increas-
Nothing to fear ing for battery and motor production, ing populations, developing market expan-
Regardless of what happens in 2019, it is with a shortage of skilled manual weld- sion, medical treatment advances, and ris-
important to remember that even though ers driving the demand for automated la- ing labor costs. Similarly, global military
the Great Recession saw that 24.1% laser ser-based solutions,” says Geoff Shannon, spending38 will grow for its fifth consecu-
sales decline from 2008 to 2009, our an- director of strategic marketing, materials tive year to reach $1.67 trillion in 2018, ac-
swer to the question we posed back then, processing at Coherent. “Just in America, cording to IHS Markit (London, England),
HEM Sapphire
22” Diameter • 1/20 wave PV TWE and better
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MEET US
44IDQuan_LFW_1901
January 20191 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus
12/21/18 World
10:26 AM
in late 2017 from various segments of the global manufacturing Industrial Laser Revenues by Laser Type
sector about possible soft- or flat-growth pictures for manufac- (US$M)
5058 5161 Total
turers in the automotive, semiconductor, farm, and heavy-duty 4855
793 0% 792 Carbon dioxide
equipment sectors. Considering that 2017 was a strong growth 768 3%
817 4% 848 Solid-state/disk
year, a modest contraction was palatable and so we tempered 785 4%
our 2018 growth projections for industrial laser revenues. 0% 845 -8% 775 Diode/excimer
849
Consequently, Industrial Laser Solutions (ILS) forecast sin-
gle-digit growth in 2018. 2453 6% 2603 5% 2746 Fiber
Exceptional growth in Q4 2017 (which exceeded guidance
numbers) and a strong Q1 2018 caused leading industrial
2017 2018 2019
laser companies to issue very positive views on the health
Source: Strategies Unlimited
of their global market in 2018. However, as the year pro-
gressed, turmoil in the key China market (one-third of all The bar chart above shows ILS revised 2017 laser revenues
industrial laser sales) as it tightened money lending policies, and our estimates for 2018 revenue and projections for 2019.
along with overcapacity in strategic fiber laser markets such We are projecting total industrial laser revenues will rise by
as sheet-metal cutting (where a selling-price war broke out), about 4%, led again by sales of high-power fiber lasers for
and the threat and then imposition of tariff policy changes metal-cutting operations, up by about 4%. Strength in new-
by the U.S. president, precipitated a slowdown in sales for ly developing fine-metal-processing applications in Europe
cutting and welding lasers. and China and growth in non-metal processing (led by the
The immediate impact was that two of the four largest laser aircraft and automotive industry conversion to composites)
manufacturers backed off on guidance for Q3 2018 and again was not enough to offset diminished capital investment in
in Q4 as these effects heightened concerns. The result was 2018 the semiconductor/display sectors and current overcapacity
growth in the low single digits, which mirrored the late 2017 in additive manufacturing, holding microprocessing to a bit
ILS projection. more than 5% growth.
1901LFW040-066.indd
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ANNUAL LASER MARKET REVIEW & FORECAST 2019 c o nt i n u e d
In the macroprocess-
Materials processing & lithography
ing segment, sheet-metal
Includes lasers used for all types of metal processing (welding, cutting, annealing, drilling); semiconductor
and microelectronics manufacturing (lithography, scribing, defect repair, via drilling); marking of all materials; cutting grew close to 4%,
and other materials processing (such as cutting and welding, rapid prototyping, and micromachining). Also in spite of turbulence in
includes lasers for lithography. the low-power end of the
While 2017 was a fantastic growth business in China brought
year for materials processing lasers, it about by a pricing war
should come as no surprise that these 6398
5860
6162 among the very large ma-
large gains were not sustainable. Going
chine suppliers. The pre-
into 2018, laser revenue remained
strong, but several negative influences dicted rise in welding’s
Revenues 4273
predominated. First, China—the largest (US$M) 3804 share of the market instead
consumer of lasers for materials Source:
remained at 4% as conver-
Strategies Unlimited
processing—continued to slow
sion of quotes to sales in
economically. Second, Europe’s economy Year 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
was hit from all sides; the European key industries such as au-
Central Bank estimates that eurozone growth will slow to 2% this year from 2.5% in 2017. Europe, which had tomotive, specifically elec-
been growing more quickly than the U.S. as recently as last year, is falling behind. And then there are the trade tric vehicle battery applica-
tariffs that President Trump has been so freely enabling against China, Europe, and some other countries. In
tions, did not materialize.
response, these countries are enacting their own tariffs against the U.S. that include lasers and other optical
components. While the tariffs have caused some slowdowns in laser revenue directly, perhaps an even bigger Simply put, for the
impact is the effect they have on dampening expectations for future growth and delaying or eliminating future above reasons (plus glob-
laser purchases and other capital expansions. Blended together, 2018 was a year of modest gains in materials al manufacturers’ tighten-
processing. As for photolithography and semiconductor manufacturing, 2018 is the year that EUV lithography
ing of capital investment),
systems finally ship. However, EUV technical challenges remain and Intel recently announced a delay in the
commercial use of EUV until 2021. As for DUV excimer lasers, 2018 was a strong year overall, and with so the pace of industrial laser
many EUV delays, it looks like DUV will be around for many years ahead. sales moderated. The 2018
industrial laser market
was about $5 billion—up 4% from a very healthy $4.9 bil- to about $90 million each year. Projecting forward and con-
lion 2017 performance. sidering the growth scenario in 2018, Gigaphoton sales for
For 2019, ILS expects mixed, single-digit growth across the the six months between April and September 2018 were re-
board for industrial lasers, with high-power laser applications ported at 20 billion yen,43 or $180 million. Similarly, ASML
in the macro sector and a modest rise in marking countering flat (Veldhoven, Netherlands), parent company of Cymer (San
growth in the micro sector that will result from the predicted Diego, CA), says it shipped 18 EUV systems in 201844 and ex-
scale-down of installations in faceplate processing. Lest readers pects to ship 30 in 2019. We think a healthy lithography la-
disparage a projected low 2% revenue increase, we suggest that ser segment in 2019 ensures growth overall for the materials
a $100 million increase in a slow market year is not to be easi- processing and lithography laser segment.
ly dismissed. Beyond is talk of a paced increase as new applica-
tions for UV lasers revive markets for additive manufacturing Communications and optical storage
systems and ultrashort-pulse (USP) laser processing sales expand. Regardless of how the global economy undulates, lasers for tele-
In the lithography light-source sector, we estimate that sales communications will be in demand for the foreseeable future.
will reach $1.104 billion in 2018 and are forecast to grow rea- “Global Internet Traffic is set to double in the next 3 years, from
sonably to $1.237 billion in 2019 (roughly 51% DUV and 49% around 100 Exabytes per month in 2017 to an estimated 200
EUV sales). But despite semiconductor capital equipment sales Exabytes a month in 2020,” said telecommunications expert
growth39 of 9.7% to a record $62.1 billion for 2018, SEMI is Michael Lebby in a late 2017 interview by Jonathan Marks,45 ed-
now forecasting a 4.0% sales drop in 2019 before a return to itor at large of PhotonDelta (Eindhoven, Netherlands). “Multiply
growth in 2020, and also revised total fab spending down- this by 12 and we are in the ‘Zetta-byte’ era with the view of
ward40 by 13% in the last half of 2018, citing “trade tensions.” ‘Yotta-bytes’ not that far away,” added Lebby.
Privately held Gigaphoton (Oyama, Japan) estimates that Last year, our forecast discussed a downward trend in the
as of May 2018, its market share in China is 70%,41 and re- second half of 2017 and into 2018 for communications lasers
vealed that its sales of light sources for flat-panel annealing because of a pause in 4G equipment buildouts before 5G infra-
and semiconductor lithography in 2015 and 201642 averaged structure investments took hold in 2019. Manufacturers had
Enabling Innovative
Optical Solutions
Optics Balzers AG
Balzers/Liechtenstein
www.opticsbalzers.com
was down significantly from the $155.6 mil- nature, and big new Year 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
lion in the same quarter in 2017. deployments tend to
occur in lock-step worldwide. Contributing to the 2018 slowdown is the general slowdown
There were some exceptions, howev- occurring in China that has led to less communications infrastructure investments.
er: Finisar, which was acquired by II-VI Regarding the use of lasers for cellular backbones, most 4G deployments are complete
Incorporated in late 2018 on the strength worldwide, with 5G deployments and upgrades yet to occur. In addition, many wireless
of its wavelength-selective switch (WSS) and service providers anticipated 5G needs when they installed their 4G upgrades, reducing
the upgrades required when 5G finally materializes. As for optical storage, the future
VCSEL portfolio for telecom and 3D sens- is dimming for lasers: DVD, CD, and Blu-ray media sales continue to decline as more
ing applications, respectively, reported rev- cloud-based solutions eliminate the need for large local storage. Heat-assisted magnetic
enue of $325.4 million for the three-month recording (HAMR), which uses a laser to increase storage capacity of magnetic media, has
period ended October 28, 2018—a 2.5% in- been pushed back yet again, with Seagate 16 TB 3.5-inch HAMR drives now expected
to hit the market in 2020. Western Digital has since moved on to Microwave Assisted
crease from the previous quarter. Finisar’s Magnetic Recording (MAMR) technology that does not require lasers at all.
success continues to be fueled by the surge
Com e
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sco, CA,
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San Franci us at booth LASER SHUTTERS
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any • www.lasos.com
LASOS Lasertechnik GmbH • Jena / Germ www.nmlaser.com
LasoLas_LFW_1901 1 NMLaser_LFW_1901
1/3/19 11:56 AM 1 12/19/18 1:20 PM
in VCSEL sales that we reported in last expects consolidation in the optical com- available such as few-cycle ultrafast lasers,
year’s market review and forecast.46 munications components sector to contin- optical parametric oscillators and amplifi-
Besides the 4G buildout pause and ue, especially considering the high premi- ers (OPOs and OPAs) with expanded wave-
weakness in Chinese purchases, Chinese ums paid for Finisar and Oclaro.54 length capabilities, supercontinuum sourc-
telecom giant ZTE (Shenzhen, China) was es, frequency combs, and others, are often
banned in April 2018 from buying U.S. Scientific research and military the prototype for lasers used in industry.
telecom products over sanctions related to The technology behind lasers for scientific Future direction for scientific laser compa-
Iran and North Korea. Oclaro attributed research, which include the most techno- nies comes at least in part from academia
its Q3 2018 revenue growth to “recovery logically advanced coherent light sources and other research institutions that are also
of shipments to ZTE [Shenzhen, China]”
after the ban was lifted47 in July 2018. The
ban, while instituted over sanctions, hurt
U.S. companies just as much as it did ZTE.
The ban itself serves as a model for how
tariffs are broadly anticipated to negatively
impact the optical communications sector.
United States FCC Commissioner Jessica
Rosenworcel told attendees at a telecom
industry event48 that the new tariffs would
be “wildly detrimental” to the U.S. roll-
out of 5G wireless networks. And because
technologists at Corning (Corning, NY),49
Ciena (Hanover, MD),50 and L-Com
(North Andover, MA)51 all agree that 5G
networks will require lots of optical fi-
ber and, consequently, lots of laser trans-
ceivers, so sales of communications lasers
will suffer if tariffs continue to be levied.
On the optical storage front, cloud-
based solutions continue to outpace CD,
DVD, and Blu-ray devices that use optical
storage lasers. By early 2017 in the United
Kingdom, digital video (film and televi-
sion streaming and downloads) revenue of
$1.66 billion had already surpassed DVD
and Blu-ray sales52 of $1.14 billion. And in
Q1 2018, U.S. customers paid nearly $3.0
billion for subscription streaming services
(representing 29% growth) compared to
only $1.1 billion for physical discs (a 10%
decline from the prior year).
Overall, a collision of these negative fac-
tors brought sales of lasers for communi-
cations and optical storage down in 2018
to $3.82 billion after seeing steady year-
over-year growth to a peak of $4.15 bil-
lion in 2017. For 2019, we expect modest
recovery in this segment to $3.98 billion,
assuming the impact of these factors is
mitigated, an all-out trade war does not
materialize, and new opportunities like
quantum communications53 see further
commercialization. The industry also
crop of high-power military lasers, with prominent in the years to come. Benefits to Jobs Act passed on December 2017; and
much of its development taking advantage the laser industry include production of la- Northrop Grumman73 reported net earn-
of well-established industrial laser tech- ser diodes needed to pump these weapons.67 ings of $2.015 billion in 2017, lower than
nology, looks much more promising (al- Numerous specific military needs con- its 2016 net earnings of $2.200 billion—
though limited to lower maximum output tinue to benefit the laser industry, such as it, too, took a one-time loss because of the
powers in the hundred-kilowatt range). lasers for infrared (IR) countermeasures, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including a $300
The U.S. Navy has asked Lockheed including further R&D into higher-bright- million tax expense.
Martin Laser and Sensor Systems to de- ness solutions,68 as well as for laser-guid- II-VI,74 which is developing high-en-
velop a 65 kW laser weapon called the ed missiles.69 In a look at the future, lidar ergy laser systems for the military, had
High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical- is being taken up by the U.S. military for revenues for 2018 of $1.159 billion vs.
dazzler with Surveillance (HELIOS),63 uses ranging from aerial infrastructure in- $972.0 million in 2017 (fiscal year end-
with possible increases to 150 kW; the spection70 to detection of biological and ing June 30). nLight (Vancouver, WA),
U.S. Army is testing a 50 kW version of chemical agents.71 In both its remote-sens- which launched its initial public offer-
its High Energy Mobile Laser Test Truck ing and surroundings-sensing incarnations, ing (IPO) in April 2018,75 showed, for
(HELMTT)64 at the White Sands Missile lidar seems a perfect fit for the military. the three months ended September 30,
Range in New Mexico, with an upgrade Two of the largest laser-related aero- 2018, revenues of $51.025 million for
to 100 kW planned in 2022; and the U.S. space companies had relatively lev- 2018, compared to $36.547 million in
Air Force is working with Ball Aerospace el 2017/2016 year-over-year income re- 2017—a growth of almost 40% on the
aircraft-mounted laser weapons to disable sults: Lockheed Martin72 had net earnings strength of its lasers for industrial, aero-
or destroy enemy aircraft missiles.65 Based of $1.9 billion in 2017 vs. $3.8 billion space, and military customers.
on diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) or fi- in 2016, but it should be noted that the The announcements by President Trump
ber-laser technology aided by techniques company took a one-time loss of $1.9 in December 2018 that the U.S. will pull
such as spectral beam combination,66 this billion in the fourth quarter of 2017 be- all its troops from Syria and 7000 from
class of military weapon will become more cause of the impacts of the Tax Cuts and Afghanistan could possibly have some in-
fluence on the military laser market next
year. However, it’s the technology race be-
tween the U.S., Russia, and China that is
the wild card. China and Russia have pro-
grams to develop hypersonic missiles76 —
could laser antimissile weapons ever enter
into the equation? And China is devel-
oping space-based lidar with the idea of
tracking submarines—is this a threat in
any way, and how would the U.S. respond?
As for the numbers, laser revenues for
the scientific and military segment grew
from $922 million in 2017 to $1.279 bil-
lion in 2018, with 2019 revenues fore-
cast to grow modestly to $1.331 billion.
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ANNUAL LASER MARKET REVIEW & FORECAST 2019 c o nt i n u e d
treatment cost pales in comparison to that In November 2018, private equity firm in revenue. The company’s current annu-
arising from consumer demand for laser CVC Capital Partners (Luxembourg) was al sales are reportedly around $500 mil-
skin treatment (such as tattoo, wrinkle, nearing finalization of its acquisition79 lion, which represents entry into new med-
hair, and scar removal and skin lightening). of medical and aesthetic laser company ical markets.
At 20% growth from 2016 to 2017, Lumenis (Yokneam, Israel). The deal is Growth in the aesthetic sector was also
Asia is at the forefront of aesthetic laser valued at roughly $950 million, compared facilitated by a number of U.S. Food and
treatments (facilitated by the addition of to the approximately $510 million paid for Drug Administration (FDA) approvals
Taiwan and Korea as medical tourism des- the company in 2015 by another private that expand dermatology applications:
tinations). In Europe, the Middle East, and equity firm, XIO (London, England). For Alma Lasers (Caesarea, Israel) was ap-
portions of Africa (areas that have previ- fiscal year 2014, Lumenis’ last as a public proved for its three-wavelengths-in-one
ously not embraced aesthetics), the laser company, the firm reported $289 million compact applicator; Syneron Candela won
aesthetics market grew 16%.
Such growth has attracted the interest
of investors, as demonstrated by multi- Medical & aesthetic
ple acquisitions in 2018. In September, Includes all lasers used for ophthalmology (including refractive surgery and
Syneron Candela (Wayland, MA) ac- photocoagulation), surgical, dental, therapeutic, skin, hair, and other aesthetic applications.
quired Ellipse (Denmark), a privately In 2018, sales of
held company (financial terms were not lasers for medical
1123
disclosed) known for its Intense Pulsed purposes had a great
year after a very strong 1028
Light (IPL) and laser-based platforms for
2017. Cosmetic and 934
medical and aesthetic dermatologic ap- dermatology lasers had 835
plications. The acquisition strengthens the strongest showing, Revenues
driven by positive (US$M) 747
Syneron Candela’s position in multi-ap- Source:
plication, multi-technology devices. A key economic conditions Strategies Unlimited
in most regions—and
Ellipse product is an IPL-and-Nd:YAG especially in Asia. Year 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
platform targeting vascular and pigment- Applications include
ed lesions, hair removal, and (with a frac- tattoo, wrinkle, hair, and scar removal, and skin lightening. Dental laser sales were also up
tionated 1550 nm add-on handpiece) skin sharply in 2018, but in terms of total revenue, remain a relatively small medical application—
only 6% of the total medical laser revenue. After a great 2017, surgical laser revenue had a
resurfacing. Incidentally, the provision of good showing in 2018. The most exciting part of the surgical laser business is the expansion
systems to address multiple specific ap- of its use: a surgeon who uses a laser for one procedure is more likely to feel comfortable
plications is a trend in product develop- with it for other types of surgery, advancing the probability of its purchase by a surgeon for its
ment—not only in aesthetics, but also in practice. In addition, laser light, and disposable laser probes, are less likely to carry germs
between patients and usually don’t require sterilization.
surgical lasers.
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56SchaKir_LFW_1901
January 2019 1 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus
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10:59 AM
clearance for its 595 nm pulsed dye laser quick to respond, and even National Additional FDA approvals in 2018 in-
(PDL) cosmetic device that adds a 1064 Public Radio weighed in,80 saying that cluded a laser endomicroscopy system for
nm wavelength to treat a broad range of gynecologists have reported good results use in neurosurgery from Mauna Kea
skin conditions; and Lutronic (Korea) was from CO2 lasers in particular. Technologies (Paris, France); a Lensar
cleared for its device offering pico- and The FDA delivered another wake-up (Orlando, FL) laser for presbyopia treat-
nanosecond modes with precise control call to manufacturers of laser-based bio- ment and another from Carl Zeiss
over pulsewidth, wavelength, and fluence medical systems. In April 2018, follow- Meditec (Jena, Germany) that extends la-
for cases that have resisted other Nd:YAG ing Medtronic’s (Minneapolis, MN) Class ser-based myopia treatment to patients
treatments. Strata Skin Sciences (Horsham 2 recall of its Visualase Cooled Laser with astigmatism; the first 355 nm laser
Township, PA), which reported Q3 2018 Applicator System (VCLAS) for MRI- for clearing plaques responsible for periph-
revenues of $7.9 million (an increase of guided laser brain surgery, the FDA issued eral artery disease from Eximo Medical
8% over 2017), received approval for an a Class I recall (the most serious type) for (Rehovot, Israel); and a Multi Radiance
excimer laser tip able to custom-filter Monteris Medical’s (also in Minneapolis) Medical (Solon, OH) system for neck and
narrowband UVB light for a maximum NeuroBlate MRI-guided ablation system shoulder pain relief that uses advanced la-
non-blistering dose. And Korean devel- because of unexpected heating of laser de- ser diodes to “super pulse” up to 50 W of
oper Hironic got clearance for its hybrid livery probes. Soon afterward, the FDA power (more than most Class IV lasers) and
acne treatment device that pairs a 1450 issued a general warning about the risk of aims to maximize treatment by discourag-
nm diode laser with bipolar radiofrequen- tissue overheating during use of such sys- ing the body from adapting to its effects.
cy and cryogenic cooling. tems, owing to inaccurate magnetic reso- Acquisitions were also numerous in
Hair restoration received a number of nance thermometry. To address the prob- 2018, demonstrating heightened anticipa-
FDA approvals in 2018 as well, includ- lem, the manufacturers provided guidance tion of growth in the medical laser indus-
ing the Theradome (Pleasanton, CA) to users, and Monteris obtained 510(k) try. In October 2018, Novanta (Bedford,
LH80 PRO (now approved for men), the clearance for a fiber-optic-controlled, MA) completed its purchase of Laser
HairMax (Boca Raton, FL) RegrowMD cooling-equipped laser probe. Quantum (Manchester, England), supplier
for treatment of androgenetic alopecia in
both men and women, and the InMode
(Lake Forest, CA) Triton, the only device
to provide concurrent emission from the
three most-popular hair-removal lasers—
alexandrite, diode, and Nd:YAG.
But the FDA’s influence on the laser aes-
thetics market wasn’t all rainbows and
sunshine. On July 30, 2018, it issued a
warning concerning systems it had ap-
proved for treatment of “serious condi-
tions like the destruction of abnormal or
precancerous cervical or vaginal tissue…”
saying that the “FDA has serious concerns
about the use of these devices to treat gy-
necological conditions beyond those for
which the devices have been approved or
cleared.” The agency was targeting the
marketing of such products for “vaginal
rejuvenation” procedures and stated that
adverse event reports and published litera-
ture highlighted numerous cases of burns,
scarring, and recurring or chronic pain.
The agency notified seven device man-
ufacturers (Alma Lasers, BTL Industries,
Cynosure, InMode, Sciton, Thermigen,
and Venus Concept) of concerns about in-
appropriate marketing. The manufactur- www.jenoptik.com/laseroptics
ers—and providers of such services—were
of solid-state and ultrafast laser sources to medical OEMs. The attributed to “early success as we test different go-to-market
$45.7 million deal is a follow-on to Novanta’s (formerly GSI Group) approaches.” Biolase also announced a partnership with the
January 2017 increase in Laser Quantum’s equity stake to 76%. Dallas Mavericks basketball team to raise awareness on the
In a deal valued at $28 million, optics and photonics sup- benefits of dental lasers.
plier Gooch & Housego (G&H; London, England) acquired Considering the future of the laser market, Praveen Arany,
Integrated Technologies (ITL; Ashford, England), maker of med- president of the World Association of Laser Therapy (WALT),81
ical devices including in vitro diagnostic tools. The August pur- points to the first-ever congressional briefing on “innovative
chase helps fulfill some of G&H’s strategic goals: ITL business medical technologies for pain management”82 and subsequent
will double G&H’s existing life sciences revenues, and the com- passage of the Opioid Crisis Response Act (OCRA) of 2018,
pany’s system-based products move G&H “up the value chain.” mandating development and adoption of pain treatment alter-
Also in August, fiber and CO2 laser manufacturer OmniGuide natives as an indicator of what’s to come for new applications.
(Cambridge, MA) acquired Lisa Laser (Katlenburg-Lindau, “There is tremendous excitement about photobiomodulation
Germany), maker of thulium and holmium lasers for treatment for pain management and oral mucositis,” he said, referencing
of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)—an application area of commercial opportunities for laser treatment of opioid addic-
growing importance, given that it was also an area of invest- tion and painful ulcers in chemo-radiation-transplant oncology
ment for Boston Scientific (Marlborough, MA), provider of the patients. Indeed, even macroeconomic softening cannot deflate
Greenlight XPS Laser Therapy system and holmium platforms. the ever-expanding medical laser markets for 2019 and beyond.
While dental lasers are still a minor player in the field of laser
medicine, their total revenues rose dramatically in 2018. Biolase Instrumentation and sensors
(Irvine, CA), which calls itself the global leader in dental lasers, Laser-based optical instrumentation for test, measurement,
reported that U.S. laser revenue for Q3 2018 had increased and sensing is a diverse market segment, as it encompasses
22% year-over-year. In its Southern California Model Market, numerous types of optics and photonics technology. Often,
laser revenue increased 127% year-over-year for the quarter the laser itself is a minor, if essential portion of the instru-
and 175% over the last two quarters—growth the company ment or sensing system. This technologically mixed market
www.osram-os.com
Light is OSRAM
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ANNUAL LASER MARKET REVIEW & FORECAST 2019 c o nt i n u e d
also includes a number of billion-dollar the near-term, exiting the third quarter we company’s DAS and Diagnostics divisions.
companies that “do it all.” have seen that our semiconductor business From 2016 to 2017, total revenues for
MKS Instruments, which throughout its has been more steady and consistent. We Bruker (Billerica, MA) rose from $1.61
history has been especially known for serv- are very optimistic on the long-term growth billion to $1.77 billion.88 The Bruker
ing the semiconductor market, strength- drivers within the semiconductor market. Scientific Instruments segment, which in-
ened its presence in the optics and pho- Moreover, we have continued to diversi- cludes all optical instrument production,
tonics arena in 2016 with its acquisition fy our markets, customers, and product saw its revenues rise from $562 million
of Newport for about $1 billion, includ- portfolio and are on target to grow our ad- to $571 million in the same time period.
ing Newport’s own previous acquisitions: vanced markets more than two times fast- Bruker was no slouch in acquisitions in
Spectra-Physics, Ophir, Femtolasers, and er than the overall market.” It is obvious 2018: JPK Instruments,89 which provides
others. In 2018, MKS announced its in- that diversification is key to MKS’ growth. microscopy instrumentation for biomo-
tent to acquire laser micromachining mak- In 2018, PerkinElmer (Waltham, MA), lecular and cellular imaging; Anasys,90
er Electro Scientific Industries,83 also for which makes scientific, medical, and in- which develops nanoscale infrared spec-
about $1 billion, in an example of a fur- dustrial instrumentation including con- troscopy and thermal measurement in-
ther diversification of MKS. From 2016 focal microscopes, many types of spec- struments; an 80% majority interest in
to 2017, MKS’ net revenues grew from trometers, and time-resolved fluorescence Hain Diagnostics; and optical metrolo-
$1.3 billion to $1.9 billion, while its net instruments, brought Shanghai Spectrum gy products maker Alicona Imaging91 are
income (profit) grew from $105 million Instruments (China) and RHS (Australia) now part of Bruker’s portfolio.
to $339 million, indicating that its course under its wing. In addition, PerkinElmer “While semiconductor metrology mar-
of action has been working out well for sold its Phenoptics multispectral imaging kets have slowed, booking rates for the
the company. In 2018, MKS has shown portfolio for quantitative pathology port- majority of Bruker’s portfolio remained
net revenues of $554 million in Q1, $573 folio to Akoya Biosciences.85 PerkinElmer’s quite healthy,” said Frank Laukien, CEO
million in Q2, and $487 million in Q3. revenues for 2017 were $2.256 billion, ris- and president of Bruker, adding that year-
Although MKS is an optical instrument ing from $2.116 billion for 2016.86 This to-date 2018 order bookings were up mid-
maker, it is still most influenced by the semi- $140 million boost in 2017 was almost to high-single digits on an organic basis,
conductor industry. “Despite the recent evenly divided between the company’s including strong growth in North America
moderation in the semiconductor market, Diagnostics division ($76 million) and and China and good results in Europe.
we are pleased with our strong financial its Discovery and Analytical Solutions Jenoptik (Jena, Germany), which can
results for the third quarter [of 2018],84 re- (DAS) division ($66 million), which pro- count instrumentation—including laser
flecting our ability to manage through these duces spectrometers. Prahlad Singh, who distance sensors, optical shaft metrolo-
cycles,” says Gerald Colella, CEO of MKS. becomes PerkinElmer’s new president and gy, and custom laser-based industrial in-
“Although we foresee the semiconductor CEO on January 1, 2019,87 will likely work strumentation—among its many prod-
market will continue to face headwinds in at increasing the synergy between the ucts and skills, had revenues of $677.5
picoquant.com/taiko
60Picoquant_LFW_1901
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1901LFW040-066.indd
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up to 95 % efficiency
back illuminated
sCMOS
deep cooled
down to -25 °C
65 mm
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LED Mini-Spectrometer
The LMS-R LED Mini-Spectrometer is a new ultra-compact,
lightweight instrument for spectral analysis in the near-infrared
range 1.3 – 2.4 μm. It enables fast and simple measurement
procedure of various samples - solids, liquids, powders.
Single- and multiline lasers with Multiline lasers lasers attractive to the flow commu-
wavelengths across the visible Because flow cytometers nity, and in later years our diode-la-
often require more than ser portfolio.” More recently following
spectrum and beyond allow
one wavelength, multiline the market request for more compact,
matching with numerous applications. lasers are a natural for this easy-to-use lasers, the company intro-
In laser-based flow cytometry, biologi- purpose. Cobolt (Solna, Sweden) has duced a multiline laser—the Cobolt
cal cells (or sometimes other particles) in provided the flow-cytometry market Skyra, Karlsson adds.
fluid are sent through a channel that is with standalone high-performance la- The Skyra combines up to four in-
arranged so that the cells pass through sers over the visible spectrum for many dividual laser wavelengths, which are
one by one, allowing a laser, or often years, notes Håkan Karlsson, the com- permanently aligned using a meth-
multiple lasers, to identify some aspect pany’s CEO. “Originally, it was our od that is patent-pending. “The idea
of the cells or particles. Often, cells in DPSS laser technology with high pow- was to be able to offer a single com-
such a setup are labeled with fluores- ers of 532 nm and 561 pact package that could be
cent dyes. Flow cytometry can be used nm which made Cobolt used like a single-line laser:
for science as well as the medical arena, that is, an easy-to-use, ro-
a) Typical power stability
and can enable devices that sort cells. bust laser with no need for
Change in power (%)
The technique is incredibly versatile, 561 nm 488 nm
realignment,” Karlsson says.
4
allowing everything from identifying 638 nm 405 nm He also notes that the lasers
2
pathogens, to sorting stem cells from are made via the compa-
0
non-stem cells, to diagnosing some ny’s HTCure manufacturing method,
-2
forms of cancer. Because each type of which he says allows the light sources
-4
detection task is different—for exam- 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
to meet the beam overlap, power sta-
ple, requiring a certain chosen fluores- Time (h) bility, and noise specifications needed
cent marker or markers—the required b) Dynamic pointing vs. baseplate for flow cytometers (the HTCure in-
temperature
laser wavelengths span a wide range. Pointing(µrad)
Baseplate
Temperature cludes matching coefficients of ther-
While laser wavelengths are available 300
Total pointing <10 µrad/°C (°C) mal expansion of components so that
in small modules suitable for medical 200 Vertical 60 they are unaffected by the high-tem-
100
instrumentation at wavelengths rang- 0
40 perature baking process. In addition,
ing from the near-ultraviolet (near-UV) -100 20 Cobolt offers customized offset line
-200 Temperature Horizontal
to the near-infrared (near-IR), flow cy- -300 0 focus optical designs, which are typi-
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
tometry typically relies on light at vis- Time (h) cally requested from the flow market.
ible wavelengths. UV flow cytometry The types of individual lasers avail-
is an area of active interest, with R&D able in the Skyra multiline laser in-
FIGURE 1. The Cobolt Skyra
being done on wavelengths into the clude modulated laser diodes (MLDs)
multiline laser for flow cytometry
deep-UV. Here, though, we concen- (inset) is stable in both output beam at 405, 445, 473, 488, 525, 633, 638,
trate on examples of workhorse light power (a) and in pointing stability 647, and 660 nm wavelengths, and
sources for flow cytometers: those op- under temperature excursions (b). diode-pumped lasers (DPLs) at 532.1,
erating in the visible spectrum. 552.8, and 561.2 nm wavelengths.
Optical output stability is better than ±1% over eight hours profiled, instrument a) Flow cytometry example:
Four-laser focus with separated
and pointing stability when cycled over a 30° range is better builders and users are positions – user-adjustable
than ±100 µrad in both vertical and horizontal directions (see looking to new laser
Fig. 1). A fiber-coupled option is also available. wavelengths—par-
“The trend to more compact systems in general in all analyt- ticularly in the UV,
ical instrumentation, along with the understanding that by of- but also in the near-
fering more wavelengths the instruments offer additional func- IR and at key visible
tionality, means that there is strong market demand for such a wavelengths.”
compact multiline laser,” Karlsson says. Callen explains
that the wavelength
Two trends flexibility of optical-
Daniel Callen, product line manager at Coherent (Santa Clara, ly pumped semicon-
CA), sees two trends in the area of laser-based flow cytometers ductor laser (OPSL)
used for cell sorting. First, he says, expanding the wavelength technology, along- b) Nominal optical performance
range supports multiparameter counting. side a growing range through focus OL10-VIS
“Multiparameter methods maximize the data content in both of available laser di- Beam diameter (µm)
clinical and research settings; that is, the ability to count a larger odes, makes these 160
number of different cell types from the same sample,” Callen says. technologies ideal to 120
“Increasing the number of counting parameters can be achieved meet this demand for 80
by using wavelength discrimination in both the detection and ex- an expanded palette
40
citation channels. Specifically, multiparameter instruments mea- of wavelengths. At 405 x
0
sure fluorescence in multiple wavelength bins, and also correlate the same time, pack- -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 488 5 x
these signals as a function of several different laser wavelengths. aging OPSLs and di- Working distance (mm) 561 x
To increase the number of parameters that are simultaneously ode technologies into c) Nominal optical performance 637 x
through focus OL15-VIS 405 y
a common, self-con-
Beam diameter (µm) 488 y
tained smart format 561 y
such as the Coherent 160
LiDAR OBIS, has enabled 120
637 y
new wavelengths to 80
be added or replaced 40
in a simple plug-and-
0
play fashion. -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
TT-CANS The second trend
Working distance (mm)
68
SemCor_LFW_1811 1 January 2019 10/22/18 10:09 AM www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World
An example of this approach is the OBIS CellX four-wave- 515, 532, 542, 553, 561, 594, 642, 785, or 1064 nm. Herman
length laser engine that includes lasers along with beam-delivery Chui, senior director of product marketing at Spectra-Physics,
optics for typical flow cytometry applications, says John Abbott, notes that the company’s Vanguard laser, which is a mode-locked
director of laser measurement and control sales at Coherent. 355 or 532 nm laser producing pulses <13 ps in duration at an
The instrument builder can select from different focus size op- 80 MHz rate, is also used for flow cytometry.
tions and then adjust the position and alignment of each beam “In addition to the usual research and clinical diagnostics
by simple internal adjustments, matching the requirements of applications,” Chui adds, “one application of flow cytom-
a particular cytometer design (see Fig. 2). By outsourcing the etry that is a bit less known is gender/trait selection for an-
beam handling and laser integration, the instrument builder imal husbandry, such as for cattle breeding. It’s an import-
cuts development costs and shortens time to market while also ant commercial application that’s enabled by lasers.”
minimizing performance risk. Additionally, Abbott says, inte-
grated laser engines such as the CellX allow capital cost reduc-
tion by consolidating hardware and electronics, for instance, For More Information
by shared thermal management and by using a single control-
ler board to drive the lasers, with common power and input/ Companies mentioned in this article include:
output connectors. Cobolt Spectra-Physics (MKS
Solna, Sweden Instruments)
www.coboltlasers.com Santa Clara, CA
Pulsed as well as continuous-wave www.spectra-physics.com
Coherent
MKS Instruments (Santa Clara, CA), of which Spectra-Physics Santa Clara, CA
Lasers is a part, makes a wide range of components for flow www.coherent.com
cytometry, including motion-control and vibration-isolation
DISCLAIMER: While we try to include information from the broadest possible number
systems, optical subassemblies and components, and lasers of companies that manufacture the products featured in our Photonics Products
series, because of limited word count as well as deadlines that cannot always be met
(by Spectra-Physics). Its laser lineup includes compact lasers by requested contributors, we cannot possibly include all companies and regret if your
(Excelsior One) with wavelengths of 375, 405, 445, 473, 488, company is not included in our series.
20DFB lasers:
the workhorse for high-end gas sensing
YEARS OF
nanoplus THANK YOU
to our customers
and partners for
putting so much
trust in us!
nanoplus DFB lasers paved the way for numerous gas sensing 777 29th Street, Suite 100
applications in industry which became state-of-the-art. 80303 Boulder, Colorado, USA
1901LFW067-070.indd
Nanoplus_LFW_1901 169 1/14/19 10:54
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AM
OPTICAL
COATINGS
REDEFINED
SPIE. PHOTONICS
WEST
FEBRUARY 5-7, 2019
BOOTH #4482 NORTH HALL
alluxa.com
1901LFW067-070.indd
Alluxa_LFW_1901 1 70 1/14/19 10:54
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2:29 PM
THIN-FILM C OATING S
Nanoparticles enhance
performance of optical coatings
THERESA HENDRICK
Dispersed nanoparticles provide including silver, titania, and zir- polymers to create an organic-inorganic
quantitative and qualitative conia. Moving forward, it will hybrid material. The design of nanopar-
be critical to further optimize ticles is an important consideration in
enhancements to high-refractive-
and customize these materials their successful incorporation—specifi-
index, antireflective, high-reflection, to bring about enhanced per- cally, particle size and compatibility with
spectral, and transparent conductive formance, as well as to explore the polymer matrix to avoid aggregation.
optical coatings. other multifunctional nanoma- Two of the most popular nanoparticles
terials that can contribute to fur- for producing high-RI coatings are titania
Evolution of the electronics, display, au- ther advances in optical coatings. (titanium dioxide or TiO2) and zirconia
tomotive, medical, and solar industries is (zirconium dioxide or ZrO2). Zirconia
a key factor driving advances in optical High-refractive-index coatings has shown success in increasing the RI
coating materials. While some industries In optical coatings, control of refractive of a coating when it is surface-modified
need coatings for substrates that offer ex- index (RI) is essential to achieve desired for compatibility with a polymeric sys-
ceptional optical clarity, others require op- performance.1 Specifically, we have seen tem. When incorporated in preliminary
tical coatings that are wavelength-specif- demand for high-RI nanoparticles for polymeric-based formulations, Cerion
ic and excellent conductors of electricity. incorporation into poly-
Since the demands placed on the optical mer-based optical coatings. Refractive index Refractive index
coatings industry are high and varied, op- By incorporating a high-RI 2.3 1.85
tical coating manufacturers are turning to coating on the light-emitting 1.80
2.2 1.75
advanced materials experts for assistance. surface of a device, light can
1.70
Quantitative and qualitative enhance- travel more productively in 2.1 1.65
ments are possible by incorporating ad- or out of the device, leading 0 10 20 30 40 50
2.0
vanced and nanoscale materials into to improved efficiency and Titania content in
hybrid film (wt%)
optical coatings. The coatings can be de- image quality.2 1.9
posited onto a substrate from a disper- High-RI polymers are 1.8
sion to form a film or can be incorporat- being developed for ad- F-bTP50 (1.801)
F-bTP30 (1.733)
ed into hybrid coating materials. Those vanced optoelectronic ap- 1.7 F-bTP10 (1.685)
who are skilled in the art of nanoparticle plications in display devic- 1.6 F-PHI-b (1.637)
engineering can create highly customized es, light-emitting diodes
300 400 500 600 700 800
and optimized materials for specific (and (LEDs), and organic LEDs Wavelength (nm)
often proprietary) optical systems by con- (OLEDs). Typical optical
sidering particle size, shape, cost, scalabil- polymers have RIs of 1.30
ity, stability, and compatibility during for- to 1.70, limiting the range of FIGURE 1. Refractive-index variation of polyimide-
nanocrystalline-TiO2 materials with wavelength is
mulation, thereby allowing companies to optical applications. 3
shown, where F-PHI-b, F-bTP10, F-bTP30, and F-bTP50
introduce novel products to the market. A promising approach to
contain 0 wt%, 10 wt%, 30 wt%, and 50 wt% TiO2,
Based on our extensive market research achieving high-RI (>1.70) respectively; the inset shows the variation of RI with
along with customer interviews, certain coatings is through the in- increasing titania content for these samples at 633 nm.
stand-out materials have the potential corporation of metal-oxide (Courtesy of National Taiwan University)
to disrupt the optical coating industry, nanoparticles with organic
functionalized zirconia nanoparticles content enables an RI of more than 1.8 as well, such as low reflectance and high
showed higher RI with increasing ZrO2 with 50 wt% TiO2 (see Fig. 1).4 transmittance.
content, increasing the RI from 1.5 to High- and low-RI nanoparticles can be
1.71 (for 66 wt% ZrO2) and 1.77 (for used to form adjustable RI coatings. For Antireflective coatings
75 wt% ZrO2). example, titania and silica (silicon diox- The surfaces of LEDs and solar cells re-
Using high-RI titania, polyimide-nano- ide or SiO2) can be used to form coatings quire antireflective (AR) coatings to pro-
crystalline-TiO2 coatings with high weight on substrates with tunable RI, based on vide high transmittance while minimiz-
percent (wt%) TiO2 can form films with the content of SiO2. Coatings such as these ing reflections of unwanted light.5 These
high optical transparency. Increasing TiO2 can have other desirable characteristics AR properties result from the destructive
interference of light as it travels through
thin films of differing RI and thickness.
While obtaining near-perfect AR coat-
ings in a research environment is possi-
Difficult Coatings Made Easy ble, industrial-scale production has been
a challenge because of poor manufactur-
ing robustness and contamination that
High performance, reliable and cost effective optical thin film impacts optical performance. However,
two materials that show promise for AR
coatings. Substrates ranging from traditional optical components,
coatings are silica and titania because of
through large flexible sheets, to unusual surface geometries.
their RI difference. A multilayer thin film
of alternating titania and silica can im-
prove transmittance for bare glass from
• Dichroic Beamsplitters
92% to 95% for one coated surface and
• Dark Mirrors
AEROSPACE &
• Sunshade Thermal Material a)
DEFENSE • NIR/SWIR Bandpass Filters Refractive index
• Notch Filters 1.28
BCP-34
1.26 BCP-92
1.24
Single and dual band
LIDAR & antireflection coatings 1.22
DATACOM on ball lenses, fiber rods, 1.20
and cylindrical lenses
1.18
25 30 35 40 45 50
Weight fraction TiO2 (%)
• MWIR/LWIR Bandpass Filters b)
MEDICAL & • Spectral Metal Transmittance
• Hot / Cold Mirrors
INDUSTRIAL 1.00
• Solderable Metallization
• Edge Filters 0.96
0.92
0.88
Glass only
Bring us your toughest coating challenge and let us engineer your solution. 0.84
ARC 0w% TiO2
0.80 ARC 50w% TiO2
Concept • Design • Prototyping • Volume Production
0.76
Visit us at Photonics West at Booth 1669 500 600 700 800
Wavelength (nm)
Explore Filters,
Light Engines,
Lenses, Integrated
Optical Imaging
Technologies, and
OEM Solutions
Photonics West
South Hall Booth 951
www.idex-hs.com
1901LFW071-076.indd1 73
IdexHea_LFW_1901 1/14/19
1/4/19 10:54 AM
3:10 PM
c on t i n u e d
Spectral coatings methods, an alternative ap- TCE Jsc Voc FF eff Rs Rsh
(mA/cm2) (V) (%) (%) (Ω( cm-2) (Ω( cm-2)
Coatings that selectively filter certain proach focuses on tuning
wavelengths of light can prevent aging nanomaterials to selectively AgNWs 0.2 0.54 33 0.05
ITO 30.7 0.65 65 13.04 0.92 147
and degradation in certain plastics that are absorb damaging or unwant-
AgNW(ZnO) 33.7 0.64 62 13.5 0.65 299
not resistant to UV light, or block near-IR ed wavelengths and transmit-
solar energy for solar-driven window cool- ting those that are preferred. FIGURE 5. Shown are parameters of CIGS solar cells with
ing.11 In addition to surface-modification Titania (TiO2) nanopar- AgNW, AgNW(ZnO), and ITO as transparent conductive
Transmittance, T550 (%) ticle coatings can transmit electrodes. (Courtesy of Incheon National University)
visible light and strongly ab-
110
100 AgNW-25 sorb UV radiation, whereas zinc oxide high film-deposition temperature, brittle-
90 (ZnO) provides broad-spectrum protec- ness, and yellow tint means that a reliable
80 AgNW-60 tion against UV radiation—especially replacement is being sought.12
70 when in nanoparticle form. Incorporating Because replacement materials like car-
60
nanoparticles such as these into coatings bon nanotubes, graphene, and conduc-
50
40 can improve protection from UV light tive polymers cannot match the perfor-
10 100 1000 10000
while remaining transparent. mance of ITO, silver nanowires (AgNWs)
Sheet resistance, RS (Ω/)
have recently emerged as an exciting sub-
FIGURE 4. Transmittance at 550 nm is Transparent conductive coatings stitute because of their high transparen-
plotted against sheet resistance of silver The market for transparent conductive cy and conductivity, low-cost deposition,
nanowires (AgNWs) with two different sizes,
coatings has exploded because of increased and resistance to cracking.
where AgNW-60 has average diameter of
54 nm and average length of 9.4 µm, and
demand for touchscreen displays and thin- The design of AgNWs is a critical factor
AgNW-25 has average diameter of 27 nm film solar cells. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is in the performance of the resulting coat-
and average length of 18 µm. (Courtesy of almost exclusively used in transparent con- ing. Longer nanowires decrease sheet resis-
the University of Surrey, Guildford) ductive coatings—however, its high cost, tance because there are fewer connections
1901LFW071-076.indd
PI_LFW_1901 1 75 1/14/19 10:54
12/18/18 11:28 AM
AM
c on t i n u e d
R&D at Berlin Adlershof has resulted with the Ferdinand-Braun- spectra. The research team at FBH is play-
in design improvements for high- Institut, Leibniz-Institut für ing a key role in advancing this field. Their
Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) research in device physics and material
power diode lasers that are boosting
and other academic institutions technology helps clarify and address per-
efficiency, peak power, brilliance, located on the same campus in formance limits, and design development
and range of emission spectra. Berlin, Germany. Beside several based on this information maximizes per-
Many major laser applications in indus- FBH spinoffs, larger companies such as formance of commercially important de-
try and academia are requiring ever-bet- the Trumpf Group, Jenoptik, II-VI, and vices—for example, better pumps to en-
ter diode-laser performance. Increasingly Corning have subsidiaries within walk- able higher performance in industrial disk
complex studies of the device physics are ing distance of the institute, where they or fiber laser systems. The FBH technol-
being used to guide developments in epi- work together on future developments in ogy also makes novel devices and mod-
taxial layer design and device technology, high-power diode lasers. ules possible and enables new kinds of ap-
and the resulting improved diode lasers plications. Inventions are protected by a
are delivering the higher efficiency, bril- How to improve diode broad patent portfolio. Example perfor-
liance, and output power that is urgent- laser technology mance records include the first 1 cm diode
ly needed now and in the coming years. Diode lasers are well known as
a) y Current flow
Diode lasers (see Fig. 1) have become the the world’s most efficient light
x
silent heroes of industrial laser technology. source, with records of more z L Back facet
≥ 95%
They do the tough job of pumping the fi- than 65% wall-plug efficien- Near field w
ber and disk lasers that have conquered the cy at an emitted power of 12 Substrate
Far field p-side n-side
multibillion-euro (and multibillion-dollar) to 15 W from a 100 µm ap-
Contact
market of cutting and welding—soon, erture. High-power laser di-
they will challenge even these systems with odes are typically grown using Electrical isolation
direct-diode applications. On the academ- metalorganic vapor-phase epi- Front facet ≈ 0 ... 10%
w95%
ic side, new ultrashort-pulse high-energy taxy (MOVPE) on gallium arse- Mode profile
θ95%
lasers with high repetition rates are pro- nide (GaAs) wafers with typical Active region
jected to open up new horizons in parti- emission wavelengths between
Waveguide
cle acceleration. These lasers will also be 700 and 1100 nm.
Cladding
diode-pumped. Although the discov-
All these developments and more re- ery of diode lasers
quire better diode lasers, and with im- dates back to the b)
FIGURE 1. Shown is the
proved performance and reduced price early 1960s, diode structure of a typical diode laser
per watt. While this sounds challenging, laser parameters (a); the inset shows the triple-
the established market for high-power di- are still rapidly asymmetric active region where
the laser radiation is generated.
ode lasers is growing fast and diversify- improving—spe-
The active diode structures of even
ing rapidly enough to encourage world- cifically efficien- high-power diode lasers are quite
wide development efforts. cy, peak power, small, as revealed by a close-up
One of the hot spots for such brilliance, and the photo (b). (Courtesy of FBH)
R&D activities is Berlin Adlershof, range of emission
laser bars with 1.5–2 kW output power and bars with >60% peak efficiency), 1.05X higher than comparable symmetric de-
conversion efficiency at 1 kW. signs (see Fig. 2).
Results of the work at FBH are regularly presented at numer- Limits to efficiency also lie in the lateral structure, as signifi-
ous conferences. A plenary talk on the latest progress and pros- cant levels of electrical current are lost on either side of the elec-
pects in this exciting and industrially critical field will be giv- trical stripe, even in broad-area lasers. A novel current blocking
en by Günther Tränkle, director of the FBH, at SPIE Photonics technology eliminates this lost current and is fabricated using a
West 2019 (San Francisco, CA; February 2-7). two-step in situ-etched MOVPE process. Corresponding pro-
totype buried mesa lasers operated at a 5% higher efficiency
Triple asymmetric layer designs (see Fig. 2). Combining both triple asymmetrical designs and
In the best modern high-power diode lasers, peak power and lateral current blocking techniques is anticipated to further in-
efficiency are not limited by failure, but instead by fundamen- crease efficiency.
tal loss mechanisms. A deep understanding of the physics with-
in the diode and the device technology is therefore a prerequi- Efficient kilowatt laser bars
site for targeting further improvements. These sophisticated epitaxial designs, when fabricated into diode
As an example, based on the results of many years of device lasers using high-quality low-defect device technology, can be
research into limits to power and efficiency, the FBH team re- exploited for higher performance in applications. For example,
cently developed the concept of a triple asymmetrical epitaxi- 1 cm laser bars are in wide industrial use, directly and as pump
al layer design. Such a design precisely manipulates the optical sources, and increased power directly lowers cost per watt, re-
field and leads to both higher efficiency and higher output pow- duces system size, and can also improve performance (via high-
ers.1 The first asymmetry is within the semiconductor materi- er-brightness pumping). FBH research has helped address this
al of the diode structure: The p-layer is made as thin as possi- challenge, enabling a two- to fourfold increase in the peak out-
ble, which reduces electrical resistance and optical losses. This put power of diode laser bars over the last 10 years (see Fig. 3)
is combined with a second asymmetry in the design of the clad- in quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) mode for pumping of pulsed
ding and waveguide inside the diode. The clad/guide asymme- solid-state laser systems.
try helps to couple unwanted optical modes into the substrate, In parallel, efficiency has been increased at 1 kW per bar,
preventing them from lasing. Finally, a third asymmetry in the from approximately 35% to 63%. Currently, Trumpf and the
graded profile of the refractive index for the layers on either FBH are collaborating closely, demonstrating kilowatt output
side of the quantum well is introduced, allowing for fine-tun- in CW mode at the highest reported operating temperature of
ing of the optical field. 298 K, and working to continuously increase efficiency and
A shift of the optical field towards the quantum well increas- beam quality. Trumpf will report the latest progress at SPIE
es optical gain without the need to adjust the p-side, which can Photonics West 2019.
remain thin for low loss. For the first time, this allows the si-
multaneous realization of low resistance, low optical loss, low Monolithically wavelength-stabilized diode lasers
power saturation, and a low threshold current. With this struc- For applications such as solid-state laser pumping and sensing,
ture, an efficiency record of 66% at 10 W output for contin- diode lasers with a narrow and stable spectrum are needed. From
uous-wave (CW) output (940 nm, 25°C) was achieved (69% the viewpoint of production costs, monolithically integrated
a) Opt. output Conversion b) Opt. output power Conversion Peak bar power/kW
power (W) efficiency (W) efficiency
Buried mesa 2.5
QCW
15 0.7 4 Reference 0.7 CW
2.0 203K, FBH
0.6 0.6
3
0.5 0.5 1.5
10 298K, FBH
0.4 0.4 288K, JDL
2 1.0
0.3 0.3 280K 293K 298K,
5 0.2 0.2 Trumpf/FBH
ETAS 1 0.5
Symmetric 0.1 0.1 278K, nLight
0.0
0 0.0 0 0.0 2005 2010 2015 2020
0 5 10 15 0 1 2 3 4 Publication year
Current (A) Current (A)
FIGURE 3. Peak optical powers from 1 cm
FIGURE 2. The extreme-triple-asymmetric (ETAS) design of a broad-area diode laser (a) diode laser bars has rapidly increased, both
shows a superior efficiency (red) of >60% when compared to a regular symmetric design; in CW (red) and quasi-CW (black) operation
buried mesa growth technology for GaAs-AlGaAs lasers (b) reduces loss currents and also mode; operating temperature, wavelength,
leads to higher efficiency (CW, 25°C, L = 4 mm, W = 100 µm). and supplier are noted.
gratings are particularly attractive technology for narrowing If the grating is brought inside the diode laser, the system
the spectrum—this approach eliminates the need for external can potentially be much simpler and more compact—a concept
feedback, which leads to lower lifetimes. As a result, FBH sci- studied in detail in the EU-funded project BRIDLE (developed
entists have intensively studied design and technology for mono- in a collaboration with DILAS and the Fraunhofer Institute for
lithic grating stabilization for many years, seeking to make this Laser Technology [Fraunhofer ILT; Aachen, Germany]). An array
key technology ready for market application. of five custom diode la-
Again, in the past 10 years, power per emitter has increased Opt. output power Conversion sers with monolithically
around tenfold and efficiency has roughly doubled. The FBH (W) efficiency integrated gratings was
Uniform
has developed and patented several different approaches that 8 Apodized 0.7 spectrally combined and
substantially reduce optical losses from the grating. For ex- 0.6 coupled into a low-mode
ample, broad-area lasers with uniform monolithically inte- 6
0.5
optical fiber with 35 µm
grated gratings (BA-DFBs) have been developed, in which the diameter and a numeri-
0.4
feedback is provided by novel apodized surface-etched grat- 4 cal aperture (NA) of 0.2,
0.3
ings (see Fig. 4). In these devices, the grating strength is varied with a total power from
2 0.2
along the resonator, thus significantly increasing fabrication the fiber of 26 W in a sin-
0.1
yield and performance compared to reference uniform DFBs gle polarization—more
(see Fig. 5). Corresponding prototype diode lasers have oper- 0 0.0 than twice the intensity
0 2 4 6 8
ated failure-free for >10,000 hours, thus promising improved Current (A) of commercially avail-
applications in coming years. able unpolarized mod-
FIGURE 5. Plotted here are the optical
ules with 105-µm-diam-
power and efficiency of monolithically
Ultrabrilliant beam combining grating-stabilized diode lasers mounted
eter fibers.
Industrial systems combine the emission of many diode lasers on submounts and ready for use in A more advanced ap-
into a single beam to reach the intensity needed to cut metals a laser system, showing the superior proach is coherent beam
such as steel. Current systems use fiber or disk lasers to collect performance of apodized gratings. combination (CBC).
the energy from the diode lasers. Direct-diode laser systems have
the potential to be a highly efficient, compact, and reliable com-
petitor to these established solutions—therefore, intensive re-
search is aiming to make this possible.
One important technique to increase the optical intensity from
direct-diode sources is wavelength beam combining (WBC), in
which light from many diode lasers are brought together into
a single beam using, for example, an external grating. In this
way, very high combined powers are produced, at the cost of
broadening the spectrum. The FBH develops highly efficient
ultra-intense arrays of diode lasers specifically for this appli-
cation. Examples include high-power arrays of single-mode la-
sers that are tailored for spectral stabilization with an external
grating and then wavelength-beam-combined (developed in a
collaboration with Trumpf).
a) Λ Uniform grating
ds = const
dres Cavity length, L Optical
λB = 2neffΛ/N output
Quantum well
Fundamental vertical mode, neff
b) Λ Non-uniform grating (apodized)
ds ds(L)
dres Cavity length, L Optical
λB = 2neffΛ/N output
Quantum well
Fundamental vertical mode, neff
Here, the output from one distributed feed- lasers. In August 2018, partners from the removal. MIR sources are also projected
back (DFB) seed laser is split into sever- German regions of Berlin and Jena joined to play a key role in future very-high-en-
al beams whose powers are boosted via forces in a new BMBF (German minis- ergy pulsed research lasers. A new gen-
parallel semiconductor amplifier stages. try for education and research) project, eration of ultrashort-pulsed high-energy
Careful regulation of the amplifier cur- coordinated by the Berlin-Brandenburg lasers is being installed worldwide, and
rents hold their output perfectly in phase so Competence Network for Optical there is demand for even higher perfor-
that the array of amplifiers acts like a sin- Technologies (OpTecBB). With 1.5 million mance. This will only be possible with
gle laser, with a diffraction-limited beam euros, the team will develop the world’s advanced diode pumping, in both conven-
and narrow spectrum. The FBH is study- first high-energy class mid-infrared laser tional and MIR wavelength bands, as is
ing how best to realize such systems (in a (HECMIR), targeting pulse energies of currently being studied in the EuPRAXIA
collaboration with the Laboratoire Charles more than 1 J at a wavelength of 1.9 µm. consortium.2
Fabry (Paris, France) and the Technical These pulse energies are made possible by
University of Denmark (Kongens Lyngby, highly intense, long-pulse diode laser pump REFERENCES
Denmark), and recent studies showed that sources, which will be developed and real- 1. P. Crump, “Lasers: excelling with extreme
CBC not only increases power but also im- ized for the HECMIR by the FBH, exploit- asymmetry,” Compound Semiconductor, 24, 6
(Sep. 2018).
proves beam quality, enabling generation ing novel diode laser designs and innovative 2. See www.eupraxia-project.eu.
of more than 2 W of frequency-convert- high duty-cycle stacked array technology.
ed green light—the highest reported level The short-pulsed MIR sources from Paul Crump is the head of the high-power di-
from a direct diode source. HECMIR could enable particle (such as ode lasers laboratory at the Ferdinand-Braun-
proton) beams from a tabletop device at Institut (FBH), Berlin, Germany; www.fbh-berlin.
com/research/photonics/high-power-diode-la-
World’s first joule-class mid- an energy level that nowadays require
sers, while Andreas Thoss is founder and
infrared laser light source basketball-court-sized accelerators. These managing director of THOSS Media, Berlin,
Advances in high-power diode lasers also particle beams would be an ideal non- Germany; e-mail: th@thoss-media.de; www.
open up new applications in solid-state invasive medical treatment for tumor thoss-media.de.
1901LFW077-080.indd
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AM
QUANTUM PHOTONICS
Ensuring quantum-secured
communications
CHRISTOPHER CHUNNILALL and TIM SPILLER
Field tests are solving the challenges all possible future quantum that go into the theoretical model need
of counting photons and measuring computer cryptanalysis. to be measured, as well as the effective-
QKD techniques encode ness of measures implemented to nulli-
their quantum states in quantum
the key using a physical pro- fy hacking attacks.1
key distribution (QKD)-based optical cess, not an algorithmic one.
transmission networks to ensure As such, key security de- How does QKD work?
communications security. pends on the physical per- Quantum key distribution takes ad-
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is formance of the QKD system at the time vantage of a fundamental aspect of
an ultrasecure communication meth- of key creation. quantum mechanics: observing a sys-
od that uses quantum states of light to Given a theoretical model for the tem changes its quantum state. The key
communicate between two distant par- system, which is built on a set of as- is encoded into the quantum states or
ties (‘Alice’ and ‘Bob’), enabling them sumptions about the abilities and per- pulses of light. If a third party—Eve—
to create a secret shared encryption key formance of the hardware, QKD can tries to copy the quantum state in tran-
that can be used to transmit and receive be proven unconditionally secure. sit, she cannot avoid introducing chang-
messages (see Fig. 1). However, any differences between the es to the light that can be detected when
To keep electronic information— actual physical system and the theoret- it is received. But if the stream of quan-
such as biometric and financial data— ical model could introduce vulnerabili- tum light signals has been received un-
secure, it is encrypted before being ties in the security that could be exploit- changed, Bob and Alice know that
transferred between parties. Simply, ed. Physical characterization is therefore they—and only they—have the key.
this involves jumbling it up in a par- essential to ensure that the hardware is They can then begin sending encrypt-
ticular way so that it can only be un- operating as intended. The parameters ed messages with confidence.
jumbled by someone who has the key.
When Alice sends an encrypted mes- Eve
Bob
sage to Bob, they both need the same SPD0
key to encrypt and decrypt it. Simply
stated, QKD is a unique way of cre-
Alice 1 0 0 1 0 Error
ating and securely sharing a key be-
due to Eve SPD1
tween Alice and Bob.
entanglement distribution and quantum Technology push, industry pull lead to the ability to quickly crack cur-
repeater stations during Phase 2 of the Although QKD is a proven technology, the rent algorithmic encryption codes. Post-
UK National Quantum Technologies next steps involve further SWaP-saving im- quantum algorithms are being actively re-
Programme, which starts in 2019 and provements and demonstrating network searched. However, as proof that these
runs for five years. scalability. Only by engaging with indus- codes will always be uncrackable is like-
Global QKD could ultimately be try and demonstrating successful appli- ly to be very difficult, “future-proof” se-
achieved by distributing keys via satel- cations of QKD using test facilities such cure systems may need to combine both
lites, as there is less photon loss and deco- as the UKQN and working with techni- QKD and post-quantum algorithms.
herence experienced in the clear atmo- cal and cyber security standards bod-
sphere and in space. This can also bring ies such as ETSI and the UK’s National REFERENCES
1. See http://bit.ly/quantumphotonics1.
QKD to locations where it would be cost- Cyber Security Centre (London, England)
2. See http://bit.ly/quantumphotonics2.
ly, unfeasible, or not secure enough to cre- will the physical specifications and secu- 3. See http://bit.ly/quantumphotonics3.
ate fiber links. This field has been stim- rity protocols be established to encourage 4. P. Sibson et al., Nat. Commun., 8, 13984
ulated by a recent demonstrator system, end-user investment and allow QKD sys- (2017).
5. See http://bit.ly/quantumphotonics4.
and various test missions are in the plan- tems to proliferate.
ning stage.5 Satellite QKD is another pri- Early adopters are likely to be govern-
Christopher Chunnilall is a senior scientist in
ority area for the UK’s quantum program ment and financial institutions, whose the Quantum Metrology Institute at the National
over the next five years. high-value communications and trading Physical Laboratory, Teddington, England;
These new approaches will also require habits can be lucrative targets for sophisti- e-mail: christopher.chunnilall@npl.co.uk; www.
npl.co.uk/quantum-metrology-institute, and
a calibration and assurance process, and cated hackers. But in the end, necessity may
Tim Spiller is director of the York Centre for
the ETSI ISG-QKD recently prepared a drive uptake of QKD. The advent of quan- Quantum Technologies, director of the UK
report surveying some of the new proto- tum computing—another technology that Quantum Communications Hub, and a pro-
cols and the physical parameters that will uses information encoded into the states fessor at the University of York, York, England;
www.york.ac.uk/physics/people/spiller.
need to be characterized.3 of quantum devices and systems—will
Optical Filters
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Pulse Compression • Concave
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SpeUs_LFW_1805 1 TechOpt_LFW_1901
4/17/18 4:33 PM 1 12/27/18 1:02 PM
A combination of advanced algorithms that two objects can be Although resolution of a confocal
and improved hardware is driving the from one another and still microscopy system is often defined by
be optically distinguishable FWHM, FWHM is different than res-
popularity of deconvolution for optical
as individual entities.) olution, especially in relation to pro-
confocal microscopy. Microscopic image res- cessed images. Blur can often be reduced
Image deconvolution is an image-pro- olution is usually measured as the full- in the observable image as defined by
cessing technique designed to remove width at half-maximum (FWHM) of FWHM, but while deconvolution re-
blur or enhance contrast and resolution. the point spread function (PSF), which duces FWHM, improved resolution
Historically, its application was limit- is a three-dimensional intensity mea- may not result. The specific method
ed to the enhancement of widefield im- surement of a small object (such as a applied for deconvolution and the pa-
ages and it was considered unnecessary 50–100 nm fluorescent bead). It is possi- rameters used for the algorithms great-
in confocal microscopy. Data provided ble to use the FWHM measurements of ly impact both measurable FWHMs
by deconvolution was considered dif- PSFs on raw and deconvolved images to and total image resolution. And it is
ficult to interpret and sometimes un- measure the effect of the deconvolution worth noting that some methods per-
trustworthy—however, deconvolution processing. Objects are mathematical- form better on small, clearly defined
is now considered a powerful and ver- ly determined to be separated based on objects such as beads rather than the
satile research tool and is often part of the Rayleigh criterion, the classic meth- tangled filaments commonly depicted
a confocal protocol. Now, every major od for determining resolution changes. in cellular images.
microscope manufacturer promotes the However, the FWHM measurement on In research settings, deconvolution
use of deconvolution for enhancing con- a PSF is not the full story for measuring is used for two purposes—to improve
focal image resolution. the effect of deconvolution. image quality and to resolve underlying
Making effective use of
Original Observed Linear Nonlinear (CI)
deconvolution, however, FIGURE 1. Results from linear and object image (Wiener) Case 1 Case 2
requires careful attention nonlinear deconvolution are shown in
to methods and associat- these images depicting original objects
ed artifacts. before image acquisition, observed
confocal image through microscope,
and following deconvolution (left). The
Deconvolution
center panel depicts linear deconvolution
and resolution with a Wiener filter, resulting in ringing
In microscopy, deconvo- artifacts observable in the beads
lution refers to the use of and crossed filaments. Nonlinear
algorithms to enhance the deconvolution results (right) improve
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) image quality, but may create data
beyond the cut-off spatial frequency.
and resolution, typically by
Case 1 results show artifacting in
reassigning out-of-focus Cut-off
connections between adjacent beads.
light back to its original po- When deconvolution parameters are frequency
sition. (The term “resolu- carefully adjusted (as depicted in Case 2 Contrast Contrast
tion” in this context relates column), good results can be achieved.
to the minimum distance Spatial frequency Spatial frequency
are easily detected by an optical system, deconvolution involves amplification of positive and negative intensity oscillations
while small objects increase in the frequen- contrast only within the cut-off frequen- appear outside the imaged object. Ringing
cy domain and typically have reduced con- cy; it will not create higher frequency com- can reduce overall image resolution, while
trast. Reducing contrast with increasing ponents above that spatial threshold, and individual measurable objects may exhibit
spatial frequency, at some point the “cut- thus is considered reliable. reduced FWHM measurements.
off frequency” is met in the frequency do- Linear deconvolution may have very pos- The major method of nonlinear decon-
main and the optical system collects no itive effects on image quality if artifacts are volution is an approach that estimates the
information above this spatial frequency minimized. However, linear deconvolution object by revisiting the result over multiple
point. In the frequency domain, linear can impart a ringing artifact, meaning that iterations. This estimate is created by estab-
lishing convolution and creating a blur im-
a) b) age, and then comparing this to the origi-
nal. Estimated images with fine structures
are produced in a gradual process. Various
algorithms (MLE, Fast MLE, Gold, etc.)
are available for creating estimated images.
As more iterations are applied, non-
linear deconvolution gradually shrinks
the object size by comparing the calcu-
lated blur image to the original. For this
20 µm 20 µm reason, it is more effective to improve an
image’s appearance with nonlinear de-
FIGURE 5. This image of an eosin-labeled brine shrimp, acquired with two-photon excitation convolution than with linear deconvolu-
at 960 nm using an Olympus FVMPE-RS system, is shown at maximum intensity projection (a) tion—but image enhancement results de-
and with nonlinear AdvMLE (b). pend on structures in the image. And the
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effect of nonlinear deconvolution cannot estimation can be judged only by the ap- deconvolution modes—linear, nonlin-
be described as a simple reduction in PSF pearance of the image (see Fig. 1). ear, and combination;
or amplification in spatial frequency, be- • Deconvolution can be overdone—seek a
cause the original image impacts the re- Putting knowledge into practice balance between artifacts and restored
sulting deconvolution image. To summarize, then, linear methods resolution;
In nonlinear deconvolution, estimation can produce ringing effects that reduce • FWHM does not equal resolution—it
accuracy depends on object structure. A FWHM without improving resolution. is possible to reduce FWHM and not
point can be easy to estimate, but with And only the components within the cut- improve resolution;
denser structures, estimation becomes off frequency are enhanced. With nonlin- • While artifacts occur with all decon-
more difficult: Structures will shrink, but ear deconvolution methods, image qual- volution methods, they can be mini-
resolution may not improve. Components ity improves, but the results are difficult mized; and
above the cut-off frequency can be created to evaluate. Nonlinear methods may also • Deconvolution is an excellent tool for
by estimation, and data not captured by offer lower reliability because of potential improving image quality, as long as
the optical system can produce artifacts. amplification above the cut-off frequency. the factors above are adequately con-
With too many estimation iterations, a In practice, nonlinear methods that sidered.
100 nm bead can be reduced to 80 nm, dominate the market are great tools for
James Lopez is manager for life science ap-
resulting in a loss of data. reducing blur in three dimensions as well plications in the Scientific Solutions Group
Besides object density, estimation results as reducing noise. Various microscope at the Olympus Corporation of the Americas,
Waltham, MA; e-mail: james.lopez@olympu-
can also be impacted by factors such as im- modalities (including widefield, confo-
samerica.com; www.olympus-lifescience.com,
aging condition and processing parame- cal, spinning disk, superresolution, and while Shintaro Fujii is with the Optical System
ters such as PSF shape, iteration number, two-photon) with corresponding PSFs are Development Division and Atsushi Doi and
and nonlinear deconvolution mode. Thus, also supported (see Figs. 2-5). Hiromi Utsunomiya are with the Scientific
Solutions Global Marketing Division, all at
careful consideration is necessary and vari- A few tips to keep in mind: Olympus Corporation, Tokyo, Japan; www.
ous values should be tested. The validity of • Weigh the pros and cons of the various olympus-global.com.
NEW!
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Upright Microscope
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The Sutter BOB – designed to eliminate the conventional microscope frame – is a versatile, open-design upright microscope
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techniques just being developed!
88SuttInst_LFW_1810
January 2019
1 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser8/3/18
Focus2:42
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LED-based tunable light source (TLS) sources for characteriz- the color captured to represent their
technology enables modern sensors ing silicon charge-coupled physical experience.
device (CCD) and com- In all cases, the sensor must be char-
to be tested with higher precision,
plementary metal-oxide acterized at multiple phases in the pro-
accuracy, and speed. semiconductor (CMOS) duction process to ensure a quality end
The need for precision light sources to sensors will also be outlined. result. Using a stable and precise ref-
test image sensors and detectors has ex- Traditionally, image sensors need erence light source is a critical part of
isted for decades, but as sensor technol- to be characterized for overall perfor- those tests, but having tunability in the
ogies advance and evolve, requirements mance in some key areas. Determining output intensity or color is also high-
for these test sources have intensified. how the sensor responds to different ly desirable. Modern TLS light sourc-
To handle these needs, LED-based tun- light stimuli is important to optimize es can use LEDs in ways that are more
able light source (TLS) technology has the image captured, whether it be for flexible than traditional halogen sourc-
been developed that enables modern scientific or consumer applications. es, resulting in higher stability with-
sensors to be tested with higher preci- In science or machine vision applica- out the drawbacks and problems that
sion, accuracy, and speed than when re- tions, understanding the linearity or were present with early LED reference
lying on pre-existing sources. timing characteristics can mean the light sources.
Here, a few different characteriza- difference between a valid or mean-
tion techniques will be outlined, in- ingless result. For consumer applica- Sensor linearity
cluding color accuracy and Bayer fil- tions, color accuracy can be absolute- characterization
ter spectral mismatch, image-sensor ly critical for photography—whether One key sensor performance criterion
linearity, and frame rate/readout time. the subject is a human skin tone or is linearity. Many applications benefit
The fundamental limits of halogen vibrant landscape, users will expect from high linearity, both regarding ac-
Sensor linearity responses
tual photon-to-electron conversion hap-
pening within the chip and the vari-
a) Before correction b) After correction
ations in electrical readout relative to
Gray level (counts) Gray level (counts)
exposure time.
4000 4000 To test linearity, a precision light
3000 3000 source is swept through a range of dif-
ferent output intensities and the sensor
2000 2000 response measured at each power lev-
1000 1000 el. The calculated linearity is only as
good as the linearity of the light source
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 itself—therefore, the absolute intensi-
Percent Percent ty of the light source must be known
with high precision and repeatability
FIGURE 1. Linearity is compared between a traditional source (a) and a TLS with low uncertainty. Traditionally, this
source (b); linearity of the traditional source suffers at both the low and high ends of would be done using a halogen lamp
the range. coupled into an integrating sphere, with
an iris in between to control intensity.
However, a halogen source itself is only linearity better than 0.1% of full scale. saturated colors such as red-green-blue
stable over short time periods of less than Feedback also ensures that the absolute (RGB) wavelengths. Figure 1 shows the
100 hours, and the iris has mechanical output intensity is stable over thousands difference in linearity between a tradi-
sources of uncertainty as well. In addi- of hours of operation. Fully solid-state tional source and the TLS method—note
tion, the test time is limited by how quick- operation means that there are no mov- specifically the low-power regions and
ly the iris can be adjusted and other things ing parts to fail and no inaccuracies be- regions near saturation.
like lamp warm-up after collecting a dark cause of iris mispositioning. The spec-
background. trum used for linearity testing can also Sensor color accuracy: Bayer
Using an LED-based TLS can over- be tuned, allowing for linearity to be filters and spectral mismatch
come these limitations and provide bet- tested with different broadband spectra For some applications, the most import-
ter linearity accuracy than traditional (such as Illuminant A or D50), or with ant aspect of performance is color accu-
methods. Built-in racy. In those cases, the spectral trans-
Spectral power (normalized)
optical feedback mission of the Bayer filter (the color
can be used to reg- 1.0 filter array covering the sensor) needs
ulate the LED con- 0.8 to be carefully determined. There is also
stant-current drive 0.6 much that goes into “demosaicing” al-
circuit. Using this gorithms to transform the filtered color
closed-loop system 0.4 channels into what human eyes perceive.
with optical feed- 0.2 Understanding the raw sensor perfor-
back adjusting the 0.0 mance is key to proper correction being
drive current al- 380 480 580 680 780 880 980 applied during demosaicing.
lows the LED out- Wavelength (nm) Traditionally, the spectral responsiv-
put to be accurate- FIGURE 2. Modern LEDs span the near-UV, visible, and near-infrared ity or quantum efficiency (QE) of the
ly controlled with in their output wavelengths and spectral profiles. bare silicon would be measured using a
Communications
Fermionics Opto-Technology
Quality Made in the U.S.A
Medical
Fermionics Opto-Technology
1901LFW089-092.indd
Fermi_LFW_1511 1 90 1/14/19 10:54
10/23/15 AM
9:12 AM
TEST & MEASUREMENT c o nt i n u e d
scanning monochromator with a halo- other hand, blue LED emitters are among the SNR across the entire wavelength
gen illumination source. The response of the most efficient of any LED color. range can be made essentially flat. The
the 2D sensor would then be measured To get around the low amount of ener- result is a more accurate representation
again with the Bayer color filters in place. gy in the blue, conventional optical filter- of the true SNR across all wavelengths,
Using the bare sensor response, the actu- ing techniques may be used. However, fil- without a bias towards the near-infrared.
al transmission of the Bayer filters them- tering light or using monochromators is a In general, this means any type of test that
selves could then be determined. Both subtractive method, meaning that it will may be performance-limited will have bet-
tests would be done using a scanning never produce more energy out than is put ter signal fidelity in the blue region.
monochromator—however, these scans in. Therefore, even if the relative blue con-
are quite slow and the output signal is tent of a halogen lamp is increased using a Sensor frame rate and
limited because the throughput from the “daylight” filter, the overall power will be readout time
monochromator is low. LEDs can pro- limited. In comparison, the TLS approach One major area of advancement in sen-
vide similar narrowband emission wave- uses different color LEDs in an additive sor development is in readout speed and
lengths—Figure 2 shows just how diverse method, combining different LEDs and overall frame rate. High-speed cameras
modern LEDs have become in their out- adding power just where it is needed for are becoming more popular in a variety
put color and spectral profiles. a given spectral output. of applications, but maintaining speed as
Using LED-based TLS technology, an Figure 3 illustrates this point in greater pixel counts skyrocket can be challenging.
alternate method for determining QE can detail. A blackbody curve and silicon re- Main drivers for overall frame drive rate
be realized. By sweeping through each sponse curve are shown, and the resulting start at a purely electrical level with the se-
LED channel one at a time, the sensor raw signal is indicated. The same compar- rial conversion time (the time required to
response relative to wavelength can be ison is done with a LED source generat- digitize a single pixel), the overall number
characterized. There are some minor res- ing a high correlated color temperature of pixel rows and columns, and the time
olution limits compared to the scanning (CCT) output—in this case, the result is required to clear the charge from regis-
monochromator system, but the signal flat across the spectrum. In this fashion, ters. However, in full camera assemblies,
strength can be orders of magnitude high-
er because of the high efficiency of LEDs.
The light output area of an LED TLS is
also much larger than for a monochro-
mator—the latter typically provides only
an approximately 5 mm area of illumina-
tion, whereas an LED source can provide
a highly uniform 25- to 300-mm-diame-
ter area. Having these higher power lev-
els and large spot sizes enable QE charac-
terization over an entire large-area sensor,
rather than only over a small subset of pix-
els in the center of the 2D array. There are
also power advantages, which will be dis-
cussed further below.
other factors exist such as the exposure advancements have allowed LED perfor-
TM time required for a given capture and the mance to be refined so that it is suitable for
delay from mechanical shutters opening scientific measurements. These advances
Image Sensor and closing. have allowed LED-based tunable sourc-
Taking all those factors into account es to be used for nearly any image sensor
Characterization gives a close estimate of the theoretical characterization method.
frame rate, but actual performance needs In many areas, TLS capabilities sur-
to be verified using a physical standard. pass traditional halogen-based meth-
This often requires a light source to be ods for these measurements in terms of
modulated with frequencies on the same stability, performance, and speed. New
order of magnitude as the frame rate. TLS devices can also replace multiple
High-quality TLS devices provide pure pieces of legacy equipment, as there
• Unmatched Accuracy DC current drivers that avoid high-fre- is much more versatility and flexibili-
• Tunable from 380-1000 nm quency pulse-width modulation flick- ty in how the output can be tuned and
er that can create undesirable effects in adapted for a variety of tests. In addi-
• Port Sizes up to 600 mm dia
the measurement. However, the ability tion, overall operational lifetime of the
• Wafer Probe Configurations to modulate the drive current on milli- LEDs is more than 100X longer than
• SWIR Option from 900-1700 nm second timescales can be useful to fully halogen lamps, with high stability and
characterize the electronic readout time faster switching time. Nearly any image
or the overall frame rate. sensor test procedure can be improved
Just as the majority of commercial, and optimized using new LED tunable
ISO 17025 accredited by NVLAP residential, and automotive lighting has light source technology.
(NVLAP lab code 200823-0 for
moved to solid-state LEDs, so too will
calibration accuracy. Trevor D. Vogt is director of engineering at
LEDs eventually surpass traditional light-
Gamma Scientific, San Diego, CA; e-mail:
contact@gamma-sci.com ing for scientific and industrial applica- tvogt@gamma-sci.com; www.gamma-sci.com.
tions. While there have been some tech-
+1.858.279.8034
nological roadblocks with stability and Tell us what you think about this article. Send an
www.gamma-sci.com
repeatability of early LED sources, new e-mail to LFWFeedback@pennwell.com.
Alternatives to relatively high loss Silica fiber endoscopy and spectroscopy equip-
silica optical fibers like ZBLAN have alternatives ment, supercontinuum light sources,
Rare-earth-doped zir- and advanced optics and sensors.
historically been limited by the
conium fluoride/bari- There are two types of losses that re-
confines of gravity-fed manufacturing um fluoride/lanthanum strict ZBLAN from more closely ap-
processes. However, this could change fluoride/aluminum flu- proaching its theoretical potential: ab-
through zero-gravity manufacturing oride/sodium fluoride sorption losses caused by impurities in
beyond Earth. (ZrF4 -BaF2-LaF3-AlF3- the glass as a preform, and scattering
NaF) or ZBLAN opti- losses caused by small microcrystals that
The optical fiber used to connect cal fiber has a broad transmission win- form when the glass is manufactured
continents is made from silica glass. dow, optimally transmitting at 2200 in a gravity-rich environment. While
Though silica fibers are the indus- nm, and significantly lower attenuation ZBLAN experts Thorlabs (Newton,
try standard for telecommunications than silica fiber at standard 1310 and NJ) have addressed absorption loss-
cables, the material is limited by its 1550 nm telecommunications wave- es through the creation of ultra-pure
narrow transmission window and the lengths (see Fig. 1). preforms, scattering losses can only
need for repeaters to amplify the light The compounds which comprise be addressed by pulling the fiber in
source. Other fibers such as ZBLAN ZBLAN vary greatly in density, giv- microgravity.
have been theorized to perform bet- ing the material attractive
ter than silica, but terrestrial manu- properties across the near- Attenuation (dB/km)
facturing challenges have historically to-mid infrared spectrum. 10000
made these fibers infeasible for tele- Because of its unique com- 1000
communications applications. position of heavy metal flu- Silica fiber
100 (state-of-the-art) Space-made
With the limitations of silica fiber be- oride compounds, ZBLAN ZBLAN
ing well understood, improvements are is formed as a crystalline 10
continually being made to the fiber avail- lattice. This lattice, how- 1 ZBLAN
able for underwater cables. However, to ever, cannot form proper- (theoretical)
0.1
address the increasing global demand ly in Earth’s gravity, creat-
0.01 * These data are
for Internet usage, which is approach- ing significant barriers to its expected results
0.001
ing the upper limit of what the current potential as a commercial 0 1 2 3 4
infrastructure can support, other ma- telecommunications fiber Wavelength (µm)
terials are being considered for subsea and limiting production
telecommunication lines. These alterna- to small quantities for FIGURE 1. The attenuation curve of state-of-the-
tives may not be subject to the same lim- specialty applications. art, telecommunications-grade silica fiber is contrasted
itations as silica fibers, especially if the Despite these barri- with space-produced ZBLAN and the theoretical ZBLAN
confines of standard draw-tower man- ers, ZBLAN fiber is attenuation.
ufacturing are removed.1 still used in lasers,
If ZBLAN could be manufactured medical devices in remote areas, and cre- environment, the fiber is produced in
to perform better than silica fiber, the ate satellites in space (see Fig. 2). a relatively small, efficient machine
planet’s available data-throughput in- Since development of its first 3D print- that is about the size of a microwave
frastructure could grow at a faster pace, ers, MIS has also advanced several oth- (see Fig. 3). This machine allows us to
ensuring that the world stay connect- er technologies from space robots to ma- create ZBLAN in space with minimal
ed as the number of Internet users and terial recyclers, enabling the future of losses from scattering and microcrystal
Internet-enabled devices continues to deep-space missions and supporting formation, increasing the fiber’s perfor-
grow exponentially. the development of a Low Earth Orbit mance towards approaching its theoret-
economy. ical limitations.
Microgravity Extensive research has been
manufacturing performed on the effects of
Made In Space (MIS) is a ZBLAN when processed in
manufacturing company a microgravity environment.
with the goal of enabling Interested in ZBLAN’s benefits,
people to live and work in the National Aeronautics and
space. By developing and de- Space Administration (NASA;
ploying space-ready manu- Washington, DC) carried out
facturing systems, we are a series of experiments in the
developing solutions for in- 1990s that sought to better
dustry and government to understand the role that grav-
meet the manufacturing ity plays in the composition of
needs of the future. the material. In 1994, NASA
In 2010, MIS began de- researchers heated terrestrial-
veloping zero-gravity 3D ly produced ZBLAN onboard
printers for the International a KC-135 flying microgravity
Space Station (ISS). In de- FIGURE 2. A finger splint designed by Dr. Julielynn Wong was parabolas. It was observed that
veloping manufacturing manufactured by the Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF) onboard none of the noncontaminated
hardware for space, MIS is the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA) samples that were processed in
constantly making new dis- microgravity showed signs of
coveries about how materials new crystal formations. 2
behave in the microgravity In 1996, NASA attempted
environment. Microgravity, again to test the effects of mi-
high radiation, extreme tem- crogravity on ZBLAN process-
perature, and extreme pres- ing, but poor design of the ex-
sure environments are nor- periment allowed the fiber to
mal challenges that we face be exposed to water, effectively
when designing systems for destroying the material used in
space. Despite these chal- the experiment. Three samples
lenges, space is actually the remained intact, none of which
optimal environment for had gravity-induced crystalli-
processing certain materials. zation present.3 Together, these
MIS owns and operates experiments demonstrated that
the world’s only commer- crystallization is suppressed in
cial manufacturing facili- ZBLAN when processed in mi-
ty off Earth—the Additive FIGURE 3. The microwave-sized instrument shown was the first crogravity (see Fig. 4).
Manufacturing Facility Made In Space Fiber Optics payload to go to the International Although the experiments did
(AMF). The first space-ready Space Station. provide conclusive evidence of
3D printing facility, AMF is crystal suppression in micro-
changing the paradigm of delivering as- Building on its experience with de- gravity, the very limited duration of mi-
sets to space, as it has been used by doc- veloping AMF and other systems for crogravity on these test flights did not
tors, researchers, universities, and space the space environment, MIS is now allow researchers to quantify the per-
explorers to further mission lifecycles, manufacturing ZBLAN optical fiber formance improvements. Additional ex-
evaluate the feasibility of 3D printing in space. Leveraging the microgravity periments need be done on a persistent
microgravity platform that will allow on seldom and expensive astronaut la- limited and many experiments are being
researchers to produce longer, quanti- bor. When the device leaves Earth on conducted simultaneously, so it is piv-
tatively testable lengths of fiber. a rocket, it is sealed, not to be opened otal for the MIS Fiber Optics payload
On Earth, ZBLAN is made in tall again until it returns to Earth. to not rely on active human involve-
draw towers that can range from 3 m
to three stories tall. The process involves
using gravity to begin to pull a section of
the heated preform until it achieves the
correct diameter of drawn fiber. Several
components contribute to a successful
fiber pull, such as the temperature of
the furnace, the uniformity of heating,
the angle of the preform as it heats, and
the speed at which the fiber is pulled.
Sensors, motors, and actuators ensure
that every aspect of the system is func-
tioning correctly, from first heating up
the preform to spooling the fiber.
To begin adapting the manufacturing
process for space, MIS sought a part-
nership with Thorlabs. Thorlabs showed
MIS the intricacies of drop tower manu-
facturing, and the companies began work
on shrinking the process down to work in FIGURE 5. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Norishige Kanai presents
a microwave oven-sized device, as space two MIS payloads onboard the International Space Station: the Additive Manufacturing Facility
(AMF) and Made In Space Fiber Optics. (Image credit: JAXA)
is limited on the ISS. In addition to sig-
nificantly reducing the size of the entire
system, the MIS Fiber Optics payload Because the fiber will be ruined if it ment. The second is to produce long-
needed to be completely autonomous, contacts any amount of water, MIS de- enough quantities of ZBLAN that the
as devices on the ISS cannot viably rely veloped a completely enclosed system material improvements can be quanti-
with a custom environmental control tatively characterized.
unit that maintains an optimal manu- The first fiber-optic manufacturing
facturing environment within the pay- device from MIS was sent to the ISS in
load. Once the unit arrives to the ISS, December 2017. Since then, there have
the astronauts unstow the device, attach been three additional fiber-optics mis-
its power and data connections, and it is sions to the ISS, each sending a unit af-
then commanded from the MIS Mission ter the preceding unit returns. The most
Control Center in Moffett Field, CA. recent launch took place in November
The device stows ultra-pure Thorlabs 2018, with several more launches mani-
ZBLAN: 1g 100 µm preforms inside, relying on internal ro- fested in 2019. The company is actively
botics to correctly position the preforms working with Thorlabs and other part-
and spool the fiber. After all preforms ners to understand the full material ben-
have been processed into space-enabled efits and advantages of space-produced
fiber, the device is disconnected from ZBLAN.
power and data and re-stowed on an
entry capsule before returning to Earth. REFERENCES
1. I. Cozmuta and D. J. Rasky, New Space, 5, 3,
121–140 (Sep. 1, 2017).
Space-enabled fiber 2. See http://bit.ly/lfwpdf1.
ZBLAN: µg Made In Space has two core objec- 3. See http://bit.ly/lfwpdf2.
tives in manufacturing space-enabled
FIGURE 4. Images show ZBLAN optical
fiber. The first is to demonstrate that Harrison Pitman is product developer at
fiber processed in 1g (Earth’s gravity) and Made In Space, Moffett Field, CA; e-mail: harri-
ZBLAN processed in approximately 0g space-enabled fiber can be efficiently
son@madeinspace.us; http://madeinspace.us.
(microgravity). (Image credit: NASA) manufactured on the ISS. Crewtime is
IMRA America, Inc., the pioneer of femtosecond fiber laser technology, offers
high quality lasers for industrial manufacturing and scientific applications.
The FCPA™ µJewel fiber laser series with its unique fiber optics design is the
quality benchmark of 24/7 operating femtosecond lasers.
imra.com / lasers@imra.com
FCPA DH Series
1901LFW093-096.indd 1 96
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12/17/18 10:49 AM
AM
HIGH-POWER DIODE LASERS
Recent advances in diode packaging focused to micron-level mold for automotive add-on parts with
and implementation are transforming spots. For this reason, a complex shape, for example. Other
most applications for applications need the flexibility to pro-
the utility and economics of
high-power diode lasers duce variable shapes to handle job-to-
applications for high-power diode involve irradiating a de- job variety and hence maximize the pro-
lasers. fined area typically mea- ductivity of a laser-based system. Some
Diode lasers offer unmatched electri- sured in millimeters. The size and shape obvious examples are fast-growing ap-
cal-to-optical efficiency, a higher pow- of this area vary greatly even in simi- plications in the furniture and cabinet
er/size ratio than any other industrial lar applications. For example, Figure industries, such as laser edging and la-
laser technology, and solid-state stabil- 2 shows how a line profile is used in ser heat treatment of molds.
ity and reliability (see Fig. 1). For many two orthogonal directions to support Even premium-brand furniture makes
years, development work primarily fo- either wire- or powder-feed cladding common use of laminates and veneers
cused on improving the performance of processes. to minimize costs, maximize strength,
the core technology: achieving higher Several applications need the ability and simplify production. Each time a
power and longer lifetimes with ever- to change the shape and/or size of the panel is cut, an edge is left that must be
brighter output. However, many other irradiated area (see Fig. 3). This can be concealed by carefully applying a tape
factors must be addressed to successful- required to heat-treat (case-harden) a of a matching material. Traditionally,
ly develop new applications and to im-
prove the economics of existing ones.
Here, we examine representative ad-
vances in three different practical areas
that improve the utility of diode lasers
and see how they positively impact re-
al-world applications.
Powder cladding the weight of this type of zoom beam-de- DL4000HPR) with an optical output of
Powder livery module. And the lenses require a up to 4 kW in a 19 in. rack-mounted pack-
Line beam
Clad area minimum size (and mass) to deliver a wide age. This is a self-contained system where
range of zoom. However, the latest zoom the power supply, control electronics, and
module from Coherent uses a novel optical diodes are all housed in a single compact
design specifically designed to minimize enclosure.
Direction the mass of the lenses. Together with the
of travel use of low-cost rigid alloys, that means a Simplified cooling requirements:
module with a mass of only 9 kg can now eliminating deionized water
deliver a focused irradiation area ranging In terms of market growth, one of the de-
Wire cladding
from a 4 × 4 mm line to a 45 × 45 mm velopments with potentially huge impact is
Wire
Line beam rectangle or square. the elimination of the requirement for de-
Clad area
ionized (DI) cooling water. With diode la-
Compact systems: rack mounting ser lifetimes nominally in the tens of thou-
Size and weight also matter in manufac- sands of hours, the lifetime of the cooling
turing environments, where costs tend to technology can sometimes be shorter than
Direction scale with footprint. This is particularly that of the lasers. Depending on the semi-
of travel
true in semiconductor fab and electronics conductor type and junction architecture,
FIGURE 2. In cladding applications, different packaging, which are performed in clean- electrical efficiencies are typically in the
orientations of a line beam geometry rooms or under other tightly controlled 45–70% range—even with these high ef-
are used for powder-based or wire-feed
ambient conditions. It is also a concern in ficiencies, with (for example) 10 kW of
methods.
highly automated, high-throughput man- output power, up to 12 kW of heat must
this was performed using thermal adhe- ufacturing situations such as in the auto- be dissipated. If the heat is not efficiently
sives, but now, many manufacturers are motive industry, where high density im- removed, the increased temperature can
switching to laser edging. Here, one side plementation of sensors, vision systems, change the optical properties of the out-
of the edge tape is heated to melting and robotics, lasers, and other technology puts put in the short term and shorten device
is then mechanically pressed against the space at a premium. lifetime in the long term.
substrate, which produces a strong direct The multikilowatt diode lasers needed A commonly used approach is to use
bond with no need for gluing. This has for many of these applications have tradi- microchannel cooling, where water flows
been proven to produce closer edges than tionally been bulky, floor-standing units. through tiny channels in a copper heatsink
with adhesives, eliminating postprocessing However, laser manufacturers have re- soldered to the diode laser bar. To mini-
such as removing excess glue with solvents. sponded to the increasing emphasis on mize current leakage and electrochemical
Different laser spot shapes and sizes are space saving with compact systems that corrosion, deionized water, which has low
needed to process different tape widths as fully exploit the inherent miniaturization electrical conductivity, is typically used.
well as a range of plastic materials. of diode lasers. For example, Coherent re- The requirement for DI water or DI wa-
Another growing application for mul- cently released a system (the HighLight ter cartridges increases operating costs
tikilowatt diode lasers is laser softening and is a significant drawback for manu-
in the automotive industry. This is used facturing in some remote or otherwise in-
to prepare the edges of high-strength steel frastructure-challenged world locations.
panels for car bodies and acts as a form In response, laser manufacturers
of stress relief. Without presoftening, the have developed cooling schemes based
joints between panels would otherwise on the use of conductive cooling, elimi-
have an increased probability of crack- nating the need for flowing water direct-
ing during the subsequent joining process. ly next to the bars and current contacts.
The need for laser spot adjustment is As a result, newer systems (such as the
met by motorized zoom optics. These use rack-mounted HighLight DL4000HPR)
specially designed optics so that the x and can be cooled with plain filtered tap wa-
y axes can be independently changed in ter, reducing operating costs and sim-
real time. Weight is an important consid- plifying their use.
FIGURE 3. This zoom module enables
eration here, as it may preclude the use of
independent adjustment of x and y axes with Heiko Riedelsberger is product line manager
lower-inertia robots and their associated no change in the beam uniformity; the two of high-power diode lasers at Coherent, Santa
lower costs. The glass lenses, mechanical axes have continuously adjustable spot size Clara, CA; e-mail: heiko.riedelsberger@coher-
mounts, and drive motors all contribute to in x and y from 4 × 4 mm up to 35 × 35 mm. ent.com; www.coherent.com.
A high-speed mid-infrared camera the key parameters of the which is coupled coaxially into the
and software system monitors melt process and adapting them laser optics, allowing the camera to
dynamically to variations obtain IR images of the melt pool at a
pools more accurately than visible
occurring during the man- 1 kHz frame rate. Based on real-time
CMOS cameras. ufacturing time. processing of the images performed
Industry 4.0 is pushing the industrial internally by the camera, the system
world to adopt new technology for in- Monitoring the melt pool continuously extracts key parameters
troducing automation, along with spe- One of the process features that is most of the melt pool such as temperature
cialized and sophisticated tools, in pro- subject to change is the melt pool, or the gradients, geometry, area, and width.
duction lines. At the same time, other area in which the light power is sudden- Using advanced algorithms for anal-
concepts such as “factories of the fu- ly transformed into heat via an inter- ysis and control, CLAMIR controls,
ture” and “zero defects” force the im- action between incident photons and in real time, the power of the inci-
plementation of new methods of fabri- matter. As a result, it makes sense to dent laser with the objective of keep-
cation, including faster, cleaner, more monitor and control the parameters af- ing the deposition process within the
efficient, and reliable processes fully fecting the melt pool: geometry, heat range of tolerances defined by the user
monitored and, when possible, con- distribution, dynamics, temperature, (see Fig. 1). The capability of install-
trolled in real time. As an example of and so on. ing CLAMIR in an existing optical
this industrial transformation and the Control for Laser Additive Manu- port makes it possible to be retrofit-
implementation of these concepts, laser facturing with Infrared (CLAMIR) ted into existing machines.
technology is being adopted as a replace- is a solution devel-
ment for traditional tools, with manu- oped and commer- Analog output
facturing processes being converted in cialized by New 0 –10 VDC Laser power
control unit
this way for a wide range of industri- Infrared Technol-
Power 2000
Power
al applications. ogies that continu- (W) 1000
877.7
0
One of these laser techniques is direct ously monitors the 0 2 4 6
Time (s)
energy deposition (DED). Among the melt pool and per- Calculation of laser power
different applications of DED, two are forms closed-loop
Melt pool
becoming widespread in the industry: feedback control Width
5 measures MWIR image
(mm) 2.5 at 1000 fps
laser metal deposition (LMD) and laser of the laser pow- 0
Real-time 0 2 4 6
cladding, both of which are mainly used er to maintain its processing Time (s)
for additive manufacturing, coating, properties at a electronics Measurement of melt pool width
and repairing. Frequently, these pro- constant through- Digital interface
cesses require very long manufactur- out the process.
ing times during which the initial con- CLAMIR uses
FIGURE 1. Control for Laser Additive Manufacturing with
ditions change dynamically while the a high-speed
Infrared (CLAMIR) is a process control system that is based on
process is running. This increases the uncooled in- monitoring via midwave infrared (MWIR) rather than near-IR and
need to integrate sensors and actuators frared (IR) visible light. Software operations provide feedback for control of
into the production equipment that are camera as a laser power. (Courtesy of NIT)
capable of monitoring and controlling main sensor,
CLAMIR is a compact and rugged de- at other wavelengths such as traditional transmitting the process’ reflected light at
vice that is compliant with robustness re- high-speed visible (VIS)-range cameras. A wavelengths above 1.1 µm, as this is the
quirements demanded by the industry. The study carried out by the Spanish Center wavelength range used by the IR camera
embedded system consists of three main of Excellence (AIMEN; Galicia, Spain) to monitor the melt pool. Most current la-
subsystems: 1) the sensor, a high-speed IR and the research center Fraunhofer ILT ser optics already have dichroic mirrors to
camera sensitive in the 1–5 µm range and (Aachen, Germany) concludes that high- bring this radiation into the optical port
uncooled operation at room temperature speed MWIR imagers provide more valu- for observation purposes, making this in-
(very important as regular maintenance of able information than traditional high- tegration quite straightforward.
the camera is not necessary); 2) electron- speed VIS-CMOS cameras for monitoring CLAMIR allows continuous control
ics for real-time image processing; and 3) laser welding and LMD processes. The ad- of laser power, avoiding overheating the
electronics for process control. vantage comes from the ability of MWIR manufactured part because of an excess
cameras to observe wider temperature gra- of power, reducing the rates of defective
MWIR has advantages dients with much more contrast before parts, the amount of materials and the
The use of a midwave-infrared (MWIR) reaching saturation.1 The benchmarking wasted energy improving productivity.
camera results in exceptional performance analysis presented in this work showed Figure 2 shows the differences between
compared with other vision technologies that the most important features were ex- two LMD cuboids fabricated without (a)
tracted from MWIR imagers. In a list of and with (b) CLAMIR control. The melt-
a)
the top-performing features, the first rep- ing effect can be seen in the top part of
resentative VIS feature was in the 34th the left cuboid, which has caused an un-
position, giving an idea of the advantag- predicted stop of the machine because of
es of using the MWIR spectral band for the inability to continue growing the part
monitoring and controlling laser weld- normally. On the other hand, the cuboid
ing processes. of the right shows clear and defined edg-
CLAMIR includes a software tool es on the top part. In addition, a metal-
that configures the system for a cho- lographic analysis showed the absence
sen production machine and process, of cracks in the cuboid fabricated with
b) logging of the process data (including CLAMIR control.
the IR images), and visualization of the CLAMIR is currently a versatile tool
logged data. for real-time control and monitoring of
CLAMIR has been designed for re- most existing LMD and cladding pro-
al-time control of LMD and cladding cesses used in the industry (see Fig. 3).
processes using multiple process speeds However, new applications are regularly
and materials, and can be used with most arising that require the use of new materi-
of the existing laser optics in the market. als, and more-complex and sophisticated
FIGURE 2. Two LMD cuboids fabricated
without CLAMIR control (a), resulting in an
The mechanical integration of CLAMIR new deposition processes are emerging.
unwanted process halt; and with CLAMIR in the laser optics is done by coupling the Different materials and structures will re-
control, the process completed, creating camera (via a C-mount) into an existing quire modified process conditions. The
crack-free parts (b). (Courtesy of NIT) optical port, which needs to be capable of CLAMIR concept was envisioned as an
adaptable system able to suit new man-
a) Melt pool width (microns) b) Width (mm) CLAMIR tests Power (W) ufacturing methods, adding new control
Cladding over
2600 1.0 Width (mm) preprocessed areas 2000 functionalities in a feasible way.
2600
2600 0.5 1500 REFERENCE
Power
2600 Reference width (mm) 1. J. Rodríguez-Araújo, A. Garcia-Diaz, V.
1800 0.0 1000
0 50 100 150 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Panadeiro, and C. Knaak, Imaging and
Time (s) Time (s) Applied Optics 2017, ATh2A.2; https://doi.
org/10.1364/aio.2017.ath2a.2.
FIGURE 3. The evolution of the width of a melt pool (a) during the LMD process is plotted
without control (orange) and with CLAMIR control (dark blue). In the case of cladding Arturo Baldasano Ramírez is CEO of New
processes, CLAMIR prevents the damage of the substrate material and allows, for example, a Infrared Technologies (NIT), Madrid, Spain;
smooth transition when entering into preprocessed areas, as shown in the lower plot, where e-mail: abaldasanor@niteurope.com; www.ni-
CLAMIR controlled the laser power (orange line) during cladding of Inconel 718 on a steel tube, teurope.com and www.clamir.com.
then on a section where one layer had been already deposited, and then on a section where
two layers were present. The green line shows the reference width and the blue line shows the Tell us what you think about this article. Send an
real width measured during the process. e-mail to LFWFeedback@pennwell.com.
Coherence Matters.
HIGH PERFORMANCE L ASERS
coboltlasers.com | hubner-photonics.com
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8:26 AM
OPTICAL PAR AMETRIC O SCILL ATOR S
State-of-the-art OPO technology the OPO principle relies as they are in principle not limited by
delivers laser light for excitation-tunable on a process referred to the wavelength coverage dictated by
as parametric amplifi- the energy levels and suitable transi-
tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.
cation in a nonlinear tions in a laser gain medium.
Driven by the desire to characterize the optical material, rather than on stim- In practice, the OPO concept was
electronic and vibronic properties of ulated emission in a laser gain medi- experimentally demonstrated already
new materials with nanometer resolu- um. Second, OPOs require a coherent more than half a century ago, 2 but
tion, photonics researchers go through source of radiation as a pump source, the progress in development and com-
considerable effort to continuously re- unlike lasers, which can be pumped mercialization of turnkey devices has
fine nanoimaging techniques. Tip- with either incoherent light sources or been substantially stalled by several
enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) sources other than light. technical obstacles.3 These obstacles
is an approach that has been well rec- Figure 1 illustrates the basic scheme have been easier to overcome at the
ognized and relies on strongly localized common to OPOs and other optical high peak powers of pulsed devices, so
enhancement of Raman scattering of la- parametric devices. The process can that tunable OPOs operating in pulsed
ser light at the point of a near-atomi- be perceived as splitting of an incom- mode have become readily available
cally sharp tip. However, not least due ing pump photon of high energy into from a variety of suppliers. Only rel-
to the lack of sources that would de- two photons of lower energy, the lat- atively recently have there been com-
liver laser light conveniently tunable ter usually referred to as signal and parable advances in continuous-wave
throughout the visible spectral range, idler photons, respectively. It is essen- (CW) OPO technology, which have
the vast majority of TERS experiments tial to note that the overall process is spurred the development of commer-
so far has been limited to single exci- subject to the conservation principles cial systems.
tation wavelengths. of photon energy and photon momen- This progress has been mainly driv-
A recent study now demonstrates ex- tum (phase-matching condition), but en, on the one hand, by the increas-
citation-dependent hyperspectral imag- otherwise does not have ing availability of cost-effec-
ing, exemplified on carbon nanotubes, further fundamental re- tive high-performance CW
by implementing a tunable continu- strictions, at least in the- Signal pump lasers and, on the oth-
ωs, ks
ous-wave optical parametric oscilla- ory. The huge potential Pump er hand, by the advent and in-
tor into a TERS setup. We take a clos- of OPOs thus derives ωp, kp creasingly sophisticated design
er look at the laser technology behind from their exceptional Idler of new nonlinear crystals. As
the experiment and illustrate the vast wavelength versatility, ωi, ki to pump lasers, the operation
potential of the method. of CW OPOs puts stringent re-
quirements on potential light
Principles of optical FIGURE 1. The parametric process in sources in terms of preferential
optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) can be
parametric oscillators single-mode operation, noise
perceived as splitting of an incoming pump
Optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) photon of high energy into two photons of lower
characteristics, beam quality,
might be considered as light sources energy (usually denoted as signal and idler) and beam pointing stability.
that deliver coherent radiation very and is subject to the conservation principles of Depending on power re-
similar to lasers, but with two main photon energy and photon momentum. quirements of the end user,
differences between the devices.1 First, either high-performance
high-volume
ed through a temperature-control loop. At
Practical design considerations the same time, the effective OPO cavity
United States.
at wavelengths that are longer than those can be extracted for wavelength conver-
used for pumping. Consequently, OPO de- sion into the visible spectral range by an-
vices operating across the visible spectral other nonlinear process.
Providing exceptional range either require UV pump sources or, As shown in Figure 2, this wavelength
engineering support alternatively, need to employ additional fre- conversion takes place in a second, sepa-
and customer care for quency conversion stages. As of now, only rate cavity by frequency doubling of the
the latter approach has been proven to be primary OPO cavity output, a process
more than 70 years.
technically practicable and operational- widely known as second-harmonic gen-
Let us quote your next ly stable in commercial turnkey systems. eration (SHG). Though this configuration
world-class project. The essential building blocks of a tun- is technically practicable and provides fa-
able CW OPO designed to cover the vis- vorable operational stability, it should be
ible range are shown in Figure 2.4 The mentioned that alternative designs, like in-
CUSTOM MANUFACTURER operational principle relies on a cascad- tracavity frequency-doubling, have been
OF PRECISION OPTICS ed sequence of nonlinear optical process- successfully demonstrated in the lab.
es within two cavities, referred to as OPO
• LENSES • PRISMS and SHG cavities, respectively. As out- Raman spectroscopy of
• ACHROMATS • WEDGES lined above, pump laser photons are first carbon nanotubes
• ASPHERES • CUSTOM split into pairs of photons of lower ener- How does widely tunable laser light, as
• WINDOWS gy (signal and idler). The particular OPO can be provided by the sources described
COATINGS
Optical parametric oscillator Single-harmonic generation
Piezo
Pump Tunable
laser output
(VIS)
www.lacroixoptics.com
Batesville, Arkansas 870.698.1881 Nonlinear crystal
Nonlinear crystal
FIGURE 2. The beam path inside a commercial CW OPO system4 is shown here in a
schematic. In the first step, a 532 nm laser pumps a nonlinear crystal to generate signal and
ISO 9001:2015 idler photons (in a 900–1300 nm range). Wavelength selection and subsequent second-
ITAR certified and compliant harmonic generation (SHG) converts either signal or idler photons into the visible range of the
spectrum (450–650 nm). The green arrow depicts the pump laser beam; dark red and light red
arrows depict the signal and the idler beam (arbitrary assignment).
above, advance nanoimaging techniques? To answer this orders of magnitude, but also ensures a highly localized exci-
question, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been selected in a tation of the sample under study. Thus, by recording tip-en-
recent study as a testbed for proof of principle of a novel ex- hanced Raman spectra intensities as a function of the tip po-
perimental approach based on TERS.5 We recall that a CNT sition, TERS allows for nanoimaging with a spatial resolution
is essentially a strip of graphene (a one-atom-thick sheet of down to below 10 nm.
carbon) rolled up into a cylinder along a so-called chiral vec- Figure 4 illustrates the sequence of events and results of a
tor with two indices (n,m). It is this chiral vector that com- TERS experiment carried out at a single laser excitation wave-
pletely determines the CNT microscopic structure—that is, length (633 nm) on a film of a CNT mixture.5 In a first step,
its tube diameter and the chiral angle along the tube axis. a so-called composed Raman spectrum is recorded by placing
Raman scattering has been well estab- the microscope tip at a particular x, y po-
lished as one of the main techniques to sition in close proximity to the CNT film.
(7,5)
identify the chiral vectors of CNTs ex- (10,3) (7,6) 633 nm The resulting composed Raman spectrum
perimentally.6 So-called radial breathing encompasses the radial breathing mode
modes (RBMs) that correspond to collec- peaks of several CNTs (all of them in elec-
tive movements of carbon atoms in the tronic resonance to the excitation wave-
(9,9)
radial direction serve as fingerprints of (12,0) 600 nm length). In a second step, the microscope
(13,1)
particular (n,m) configurations in the (11,1)(8,4) tip is retracted and the far-field spectrum
Raman spectrum. recorded without the tip-enhanced Raman
The usual CNT Raman scattering sig- Intensity (12,0) contribution to the signal. By subtracting
(a.u.)
nals are typically very weak, and there- the far-field spectrum from the composed
568 nm
fore of little practical relevance. However, (6,5) spectrum, the pure tip-enhanced Raman
the Raman scattering efficiency is signifi- spectrum is obtained. Eventually, from
cantly enlarged if the laser energy match- the pure tip-enhanced Raman spectrum,
es the energy of an optically allowed elec- 532 nm the tube species underneath the tip posi-
tronic transition—an enhancement process (9,2) tion can be unambiguously identified—a
referred to as resonance Raman scatter- CNT with (7,5) chirality in the example
ing.6 In other words, for a particular la- shown in Figure 4a.
200 250 300 350 400
ser excitation wavelength, the observed For a spatial image of the particular
Raman shift (cm-1)
Raman signals (respective radial breath- CNT, the outlined procedure is repeated:
ing modes) from a mixture of CNTs will FIGURE 3. Resonance Raman scattering The tip position is scanned stepwise over
derive only from those CNTs that are in spectra are shown of a mixture of single-wall the sample surface and at each point the
electronic resonance with the laser exci- carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in ethanol solution. intensity of the pure tip-enhanced Raman
tation (see Fig. 3). Note that the Raman The spectra are recorded for excitation peak determined. Figure 4b shows the re-
wavelengths of 633, 600, 568, and 532 nm
data, recorded for a mixture of CNTs in sult of such a scan and images the posi-
(from top to bottom). The peak captions
solution, is to be perceived as a composi- tion of a (7,5) CNT in a 550 × 140 nm2
indicate the peak assignment to signals of
tional analysis, but does not contain any CNTs of a particular chirality (n,m). (Courtesy area. As can be seen, the CNT is around
spatial information whatsoever. of Patryk Kusch from the group of Stephanie 800 nm long and bent in a steplike shape.
Reich at the Freie Universität Berlin) The full beauty of the experimental
Excitation-tunable tip-enhanced
a) b) 120 1
Raman spectroscopy
The three main components of a TERS 80
y 1
setup include: A laser light source for exci- Intensity (nm) 40
(7,5) 2
tation, an atomic-force microscope (AFM) (a.u.) 1
far-field 0 200 400
equipped with a sharp metallic tip, and 2
1-2 x (nm)
a Raman spectrometer recording the in-
240 300 1 0
elastically scattered radiation.5 The ba- Raman shift (in cm-1) Normalized intensity
sic physical principle behind TERS relies
on so-called localized surface plasmons FIGURE 4. Shown are composed (blue line), far-field (black line), and tip-enhanced Raman
that are excited by the laser light in the spectra (red line) of the radial breathing modes (RBMs) of several carbon nanotube species
(a). The tip-enhanced Raman spectrum can be unambiguously assigned to a nanotube of (7,5)
microscope tip. These plasmons gener-
chirality. A nanoimage of the (7,5) carbon nanotube, obtained by plotting the tip enhanced
ate a strongly localized electromagnet- RBM intensity as a function of tip position, is also shown (b). (Courtesy of Patryk Kusch from
ic field, which not only enhances the in- the group of Stephanie Reich at the Freie Universität Berlin; adapted from N. S. Mueller, S.
coming and Raman-scattered radiation by Juergensen, K. Höflich, S. Reich, and P. Kusch5)
approach now unfolds when realizing that the imaging ca- vibronic properties of matter on the nanometer scale—it is tan-
pability of the setup is no longer limited to a subset of CNTs talizing to envision the application of this method to the exist-
that happen to be in electronic resonance to a particular ex- ing broad variety of 1D and 2D materials.
citation wavelength, as has been the case for the vast major-
ity of TERS experiments. On the contrary, the examination ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge enlightening discussions and sup-
of the sample under study can be in principle performed for
port by Stephanie Reich and her group at the Free University Berlin.
a quasi-continuum of wavelengths that is covered by the tun-
able laser light source. REFERENCES
In the present example, this allows unprecedented access to a 1. R. Paschotta, Optical Parametric Oscillators, Encyclopedia of Laser Physics
broad variety of CNT species—Figure 5 shows excitation-tun- and Technology Ed. 1, Wiley-VCH (2008).
2. J. A. Giordmaine and R. C. Mills, Phys. Rev. Lett., 14, 973 (1965).
able tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (e-TERS) methodolo-
3. M. Ebrahim-Zadeh, Optical Parametric Oscillators, in Handbook of Optics
gy recently reported.5 By using four different excitation wave- Ed. 2, McGraw-Hill, Ed. 2 (2001).
lengths, it becomes possible to identify and image a total of nine 4. J. Sperling and K. Hens, Optik & Photonik, 13, 22 (2018).
different CNT species within one and the same sample area. We 5. N. S. Mueller, S. Juergensen, K. Höflich, S. Reich, and P. Kusch, “Excitation-
tunable tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy,” J. Phys. Chem C, accepted.
point out that the e-TERS nanoimages in Figure 5 visualize, for
6. C. Thomsen and S. Reich, Raman Scattering in Carbon Nanotubes, Top.
the first time, the shape and orientation of different CNT spe- Appl. Phys., 108, 115 (2007).
cies in spatially overlapping arrangements. And they are no lon-
ger limited to an observation window that is dictated by a nar- Jaroslaw Sperling is sales manager and Korbinian Hens is product
row band of electronic transitions that fall to be in resonance manager, both at HÜBNER Photonics, Kassel, Germany; e-mail:
jaroslaw.sperling@hubner-germany.com; www.hubner-photonics.com,
with a single excitation wavelength.
while Patryk Kusch is a postdoctoral researcher at the Freie Universität,
Berlin, Germany.
Outlook
The experimental demonstration of excitation-tunable tip-en- Tell us what you think about this article. Send an e-mail to LFWFeedback@
hanced Raman spectroscopy comes in tandem with the avail- pennwell.com.
Normalized
intensity
Must have
1
(9,2)
industry insights
532 nm
50 nm
568 nm (6,5)
are just a click
600 nm 633 nm (7,5) away!
(9,9)
(10,3)
(13,1)
(11,1)
(7,6)
(12,0) (7,5) 0
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AT: If we look at the photonics part, AT: Does that mean you would form
which markets do you want to focus on new research groups, or do you put ad-
in the near future and how? ditional freedom on the existing teams?
ST: In our OEM business, which we are ST: Definitely the latter one. We are trying
going to call Light and Optics, we are go- to create more room for creativity with-
ing to focus even more on customers in in our existing organization. Whether we
the semiconductor manufacturing equip- will add incubators or additional groups,
ment, biophotonics, industrial, and data we don’t know yet. But that’s certainly
and communication environments. something we’re thinking about at the
In our new Light and Production divi- moment, and we will focus on that even
sion, we will continue to focus on the au- more in 2019.
tomotive sector. But in the future, we also
want to expand our activities to adjacent AT: Have you already determined fields
segments for this business. And of course, FIGURE 2. When the (former) East German where you want to focus your R&D?
in our Light and Safety business, we will part of Zeiss was split off in the early 1990s, ST: We’re certainly continuing to focus on
the historical Ernst-Abbe Building went
focus on making roads and communities classical optical technologies such as mi-
to Jenoptik; today, it hosts their executive
safer, together with our customers. board. (Photo credit: Günther Prätor)
crostructured optics, nano-optics, and the
like. However, the future lies in the appli-
AT: Is there a common strategy you follow? cation. Just producing the most sophisticated piece of glass or
ST: Optics and photonics is a fairly broad sector with lots of the best polished surface will not be good enough.
different verticals and lots of different subsegments. I, for one, In my opinion, we can become stronger in the data-driven
believe that for Jenoptik, it’s best to focus on sectors in which environment. Our sensors and our cameras are actually right
technological differentiation enables premium prices. We’re not on the interface between analog information and the digital da-
at our best when it comes to commoditized products. taset. Because what’s a camera doing? Essentially, it provides
a digital dataset.
AT: Can you give me one example where you can really As an industry, we are still positioned so that we produce a
stand out with products that you do with the excellent staff digital dataset and someone else makes money with it. And we
here in Jena or other places in Germany? Because I think forget that the most important resource of the future will be
one should mention that while Jena is a classical hotspot the data itself—the sensor becomes a commodity. What’s real-
of optical sciences, Jenoptik has acquired, I think, almost a ly going to make the money is an integrated solution of sensor
dozen factories all across Germany and around the world and data processing.
with extremely talented people. And those are the right peo- Within the next five years, we must have an answer to
ple to stand out, to develop technological advances that are the question: How do we address the changes in our ever-
not commodities, right? more digitized world? How do we work with the Googles
ST: Sure. Just think about our contribution to the semiconduc- of this world? I think that’s a challenge that the whole in-
tor industry, for example. The sensors and the devices that we dustry has to face.
develop and build in Jena, in Dresden, and in a couple of other
places for the semiconductor manufacturing space are outstand- AT: Jenoptik is making a big strategic change to adapt to
ing. There are only a few companies that I know of that have the 21st century. What are you doing to take your people
the technological competences required at this level. with you?
ST: This is probably our biggest challenge. We must make sure
AT: How do you want to change your strategy on R&D? that we’re not losing our strengths in German engineering. This
ST: Considering the balance between R and D, we want to in- has made us strong in the past, but we want to add a more-in-
vest a bit more into the R part of R&D. We did a lot of con- ternational appeal and more intercultural competencies. In the
tract development, which is in a way great since we have built end, it is all about communication.
a lot of customer intimacy. However, if we only develop what
our customers tell us, we may risk losing our competitive edge. AT: What do you do to attract new talents?
Thus, I believe that we need to invest a bit more into ad- ST: Talents are much more mobile these days than in the past.
vanced research. We now have enough financial firepower to To have a nice working environment in Jena is just not good
be able to face risky endeavors at times. We won’t just do blue enough. We have to be able to provide international experienc-
sky research, but I think we can afford to take more calculat- es to our people. We can offer secondments to our sites and ap-
ed risks. This, in turn, will be the basis for securing a compet- plication labs in Silicon Valley, for example, or in Shanghai. For
itive edge in the future. our engineers, that’s quite an interesting prospect.
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Jenoptik has just raised its 2018 rev- business is strong and when I talk with customers, most of them are still quite
enue forecast for the second time, so optimistic. However, if discussions around tariffs and trade protectionism in-
the company is doing very well in its tensify, then we might actually see a problem. We do believe in free trade and
core markets of photonic and mecha- we depend on free trade.
tronic solutions. Contributing Editor
Andreas Thoss spoke with Jenoptik’s AT: Earlier this year, you announced a substantial strategic change for
CEO, Dr. Stefan Traeger, about Jenoptik. Could you tell me more about this change and why you think it
Jenoptik’s Strategy 2022 and what is necessary?
is in the strategy beyond structural ST: We have summarized our strategy under the headline “More Light.” It ba-
changes. sically calls for three major building blocks: We’re talking about “more focus”
for the company as a whole; we’re talking about “more innovation,” and we’re
Andreas Thoss: How was the year talking about becoming “more international.”
for Jenoptik? And what are your Jenoptik today is a relatively diversified industrial conglomerate. What we
prospects for 2019? want to do is to transform this diversified industrial conglomerate into a fo-
Stefan Traeger: To us, 2018 has been cused technology group. We will focus on optics and photonics, which is our
driven by strong markets in all seg- core competence at the end of the day.
ments. We’re still having a lot of tail- Why are we doing this? We have a lot of success in the marketplace at the mo-
wind from the semiconductor industry ment. However, if you look back, things haven’t always been easy for Jenoptik.
and the demand in areas of biopho- The company went through quite some challenging times in the last decade. It
tonics, healthcare, and life sciences is wasn’t always clear whether or not Jenoptik really survives. Those days are over.
growing fast as well. We now have a strong balance sheet—we have the financial means and certain-
Business in 2019 is a bit harder to ly the willingness to invest into growth. From my point of view, Jenoptik is at
predict. In our own funnels, we don’t a decisive moment in its history.
see a downturn at the moment. Our And given that change and that we are now coming from a pretty-strong po-
sition, we do want to invest in growth and we do want to take the company to
the next level. I don’t think that we can do everything at the same time with the
same rigor, though. Thus, we’ve got to focus actually on something that we’re
really good at—on our core competencies in optics and photonics.
AT: You have split the company in two branches. The one that is optics and
the other one that is not optics. Could you say a few words more about that?
ST: Sure. We have just recently established the new brand Vincorion for our
mechatronic business. We had to look for synergies between our mechatron-
ic businesses, which cater predominantly to defense and aerospace customers,
and our optics business. Those businesses are very different. They act in differ-
ent marketplaces, they follow different rules and different regulations, and they
FIGURE 1. Jenoptik’s president and
have a different mindset.
CEO Stefan Traeger worked for ZEISS
and Leica Microsystems (Danaher
group) before taking the lead in Jena in AT: Do you want to sell it?
December 2016. (Photo credit: Walter ST: We do not have an active process to dispose that business. However, we ex-
Oppel, Fraunhofer IOF) plicitly don’t want to exclude that for the future. continued on page 118
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. © 2018 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. All rights
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