Applications

Elforlight Lasers are efficacious in a wide range of applications, but are particularly tailored for several specific uses:

• Reprographics
• Spectroscopy
• Displays
• Alignment
• Interferometry / Holography
• Materials processing
• Underwater imaging / ranging
• Optical tweezers
• Opthalmology
• Time Resolved Fluorescence

Reprographics

Printing methods today are heavily dependent on digital techniques involving laser. For the required quality, reliable, high specification lasers are needed. Consistent power and beam parameters combined with low noise are essential

G4 series lasers provide powers up to 250mW at 532nm, with noise levels typically <0.2%RMS, with superb long term power stability of 1%peak to peak over 8 hours.

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Spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy requires stable, narrow linewidth sources.

G4, B4 and R4 lasers are specially tailored as Raman excitation sources. Single longitudinal mode operation provides narrow linewidth for the ultimate resolution. Filtering removes unwanted background emissions.

Reduced linewidth versions of Elforlight's L series lasers provide outputs up to 3 Watts at 1064nm with linewidths <0.5cm-1

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Displays

The HPG series combine powers to 5 Watts with excellent beam quality (<0.5mRad divergence at 2mm diameter) and modulation providing blanking capability up to 30kHz - fast enough for the most complex graphics. OEM packaging is available for incorporation into end user systems.

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Alignment

Whilst G4 and HPG lasers provide for visible alignment, customised 1053nm versions of L series lasers are being used to align some of the biggest Nd:glass lasers in the world. Remote wavelength selection (1047 / 1053nm) and narrow linewidth have provided benefits for the users.

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Interferometry / Holography

Our G4 lasers provide perfect single longitudinal mode operation giving many metres of coherence for the most demanding applications.

Non destructive testing of a wide range of materials and components is possible. The compact size of G4 means that it is the interferometer that dictates the system size, not the laser.

Stable output and long coherence enable the creation of holograms of the largest of objects.

LP series lasers with reduced linewidths offer coherence lengths to >50cm. Such a laser is used by the e-Holocam project (www.eholocam.com) to create electronic holographic videos at 25 Hz. This system was recently deployed to investigate plankton at depths of several hundred meters under the North Sea.

Reconstruction from frame of holographic video taken at a depth of 70m showing plankton.

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Materials processing

High rep rate q-switched lasers of the FQ series and LQ series can be used for micromachining or marking of a range of materials. Infrared, green and UV versions are available. The FQ laser features short (10ns) pulses, making it a “sharp tool” which is particularly suited to wire stripping /scribing uses.

SPOT lasers find application in memory / display repair, cable marking etc.

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Underwater imaging / ranging / illumination

Green CW and pulsed lasers are employed for transmission through water. Short pulses from frequency doubled SPOT Series lasers provide ranging capability to high resolutions. CW HPG lasers provide long range illumination. Addition of line generation optics combined with vision sytems optics enable profiling of underwater objects.

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Optical tweezers

Microscopic manipulation of biological specimens is now routinely carried out using optical tweezers. Lasers for this application require good beam quality and pointing stability. Elforlight can offer TEM00 beams up to 8Watts at 1064nm, which are being used in leading edge research in this field.

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Opthalmology

HPG lasers provide outputs up to 5 Watts at 532nm in compact packages, with or without fibre coupling.

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Time Resolved Fluorescence

The SPOT Laser Series has pulse widths down to 1 ns, with peak powers of up to 80mW at 532nm, making it ideal for nanosecond timescale assessments of fluorescence lifetimes.