nLIGHT Expands Line of High-Brightness Visible Single Emitter Diode Lasers

Vancouver, WA  January 19, 2007

Leveraging nLIGHT’s proprietary nXLT™ technology, nLIGHT is pleased to announce the release of a new line of high-brightness single emitter diode lasers in the 650 to 690 nm region. Available in either c-mount or HHL packages, these new devices feature 1.5 W of optical power from a 150 µm emitter width at 665 nm, 680 nm, and 690 nm. These devices are targeted for a wide variety of applications, including consumer, machine vision, photodynamic therapy, and DNA sequencing.  Specific combinations of wavelength, power, and emitter width can be customized for OEM applications.

“By using our proprietary MOCVD-grown laser structures and facet passivation technology, we are able to increase the rated power by 50% without sacrificing any lifetime or reliability. In fact, our lifetest data indicates an equivalent or higher MTTF rate (over 20,000 hrs) for the new devices as compared to the 1 W devices. This combi-nation of power and lifetime is a hallmark of our nXLT™ (eXtended Life Technology) process.” said Mark DeVito, VP of Device Engineering at nLIGHT. 

Typical operating currents are around 2.1 A, with a compliance voltage of 2.2 V and a wall-plug efficiency of over 30%. Spectral width is <3 nm, and typical beam divergence is <42 degrees FWHM in the fast-axis direction, and <10 degrees FWHM in the slow-axis direction. As an added feature, nLIGHT can include an AR-coated cylinder lens to collimate the fast-axis to <2 degrees, FWHM, with >95% power transmission.