Engineered materials and optoelectronic component maker II-VI Inc of Saxonburg, PA, USA (which makes high-power semiconductor laser components) has announced the commercial availability of its actively cooled laser bars, emitting 200W of continuous wave (cw) power with greater than 60% efficiency. The laser bars enable multi-kilowatt vertical stacks to optically pump neodymium-doped solid-state lasers, including in below-freezing environments.
Next-generation directed-energy weapon systems require increased mobility and operation at extreme ambient temperatures. Offering a combination of power, efficiency and polarization purity, II-VI’s new laser bars enable diode-pumped solid-state laser designs employed in new directed-energy weapon systems to achieve optimum size, weight and energy efficiency. The firm says that use of an ethylene-glycol coolant makes the II-VI laser bars commercially unique in their ability to operate in extremely low-temperature conditions such as in airborne vehicles and to withstand storage temperatures as low as -40°C.
“With these bars we are capable of building stacks with more than 7kW of output power,” says Karlheinz Gulden, general manager, II-VI Laser Enterprise. “It’s a significant achievement that adds to our 20-year legacy of gallium arsenide laser technology platform development.”
With demonstrated cw output of up to 275W, II-VI’s new laser diode bars are rated for cw output of 200W in operation. They can be stacked to optically pump multi-kilowatt solid-state lasers. They also feature a proprietary hard solder technology designed to withstand high-power pulsed operation with what is claimed to be excellent reliability.
With short operating wavelengths in the 8xx nm regime, the laser bar stacks are also effective in direct-diode laser systems for processing metals such as copper, bronze, brass, stainless steel and aluminium, which are otherwise highly reflective to the longer wavelengths of typical industrial lasers.
II-VI is showcasing its optical systems capabilities at the 2017 Directed Energy Systems Symposium in Monterey, CA, USA (25-29 September).
