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Modulight of Tampere, Finland says it is continuing its close cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) by signing a $1.1m, two-year contract to develop high-brightness pump laser technology for Earth observation. The project aims to improve the brightness and reliability of high-power laser arrays that are generally used for pumping solid-state lasers in industrial and space applications.

The program is a continuation of efforts to develop lasers in the 800nm bandwidth range for space, defense and industrial markets. “We have already supplied space-qualified communications lasers to ESA for the SMOS mission in 2004 and worked together with ESA on several laser development programs,” says president & CEO Dr Petteri Uusimaa.

The latest project aims to produce design and engineering models of space-qualifiable-quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) laser arrays that have an output power of more than 200W and are stackable in laser modules of up to 1kW.

“This new contract helps us to further exploit our product offering in space application, and also opens interesting new business opportunities in commercial markets where higher brightness and more reliable pump lasers are continuously needed,” says Uusimaa. “Modulight is proud to have the opportunity to improve competitiveness of Europe in this strategically important technology area.”

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