20 January 2017

II-VI Laser Enterprise launches 170W passively cooled and 250W actively cooled laser bars for direct-diode lasers

The Zurich, Switzerland-based II-VI Laser Enterprise GmbH division of engineered materials and optoelectronic component maker II-VI Inc of Saxonburg, PA, USA (which provides high-power semiconductor laser components enabling fiber and direct-diode laser systems) has launched 170W passively cooled and 250W actively cooled laser bars.

Direct-diode lasers used in industrial sheet metal cutting, welding and additive manufacturing are achieving up to tens of kilowatts of output power using wavelength and polarization multiplexing of multiple high-power gallium arsenide (GaAs) laser bars. II-VI says that its new passively and actively cooled laser bars enable high efficiency coupling into optical fibers due to their mechanical flatness properties or 'low smile'. They also feature a critical and proprietary hard solder technology that is designed to withstand the high-power pulsed and on/off operation typical for direct-diode lasers.

"We continue to advance our high-power GaAs semiconductor platform to extend our broad portfolio of seed lasers, pump lasers and laser bars that enable next-generation fiber and direct-diode lasers," says II-VI Laser Enterprise's general manager Karlheinz Gulden. "The use of direct-diode lasers in additive manufacturing to repair high-wear industrial tools is one of the more recent and exciting applications enabled by our new laser bars."

The 170W passively cooled and 250W actively cooled lasers bars are available over a wide wavelength range of 790-1070µm to enable a variety of wavelength-multiplexed laser designs. Both products feature II-VI's proprietary E2 front-mirror passivation, preventing catastrophic optical damage (COD) to the laser diode facet even at extremely high output powers. II-VI also offers high-power laser optics, based on magneto rheological finishing and IBS coatings, for beam management and to fiber-couple direct-diode lasers.

II-VI Inc's capabilities are being showcased in booth # 1833 (South Hall, Moscone Center) at SPIE Photonics West 2017 in San Francisco (31 January - 2 February), highlighting the advances that the firm's material science and technology platforms have made possible for materials processing, industrial machine tools, biomedical instrumentation and military applications. II-VI is launching several new high-power semiconductor laser chips, modules and bars as well as high-power laser optics for next-generation CO2, fiber and direct-diode lasers.

Tags: II-VI Inc Laser diodes

Visit: http://spie.org/photonics-west.xml

Visit: www.ii-vi.com/business_units/II-VI-Laser-Enterprise.html