Newport Expands Ultrafast Optics Product Lines
Irvine, CA -- Newport Corporation has expanded their line of products for ultrafast laser applications with the addition of new output couplers, larger Brewster's angle dispersing prisms, and a thinner beam sampler. All these optics feature ¦Ë/10 surface flatness and utilize broadband coatings that provide the ideal combination of low group velocity dispersion and high damage threshold. This is necessary because ultrafast pulses are characterized by high peak powers that can damage some conventional coatings.
Newport offers a comprehensive range of off-the-shelf, intracavity and beam delivery optics for ultrafast lasers. These optics are designed with the high performance necessary for research applications, such as multiphoton microscopy, terahertz imaging, and non-linear optics studies. They are also available in volume for emerging OEM applications of ultrafast lasers such as hole drilling and other types of micromachining.
Brewster's angle prisms are usually employed in pairs to compensate for unwanted pulse broadening due to group velocity dispersion caused by other optics, or to re-compress a chirped (stretched) pulse. Two new models of Brewster's angle prisms are now available. These new prisms have an edge dimension of 25 mm and are available in either UV grade fused silica or LaKL21 to provide a choice in dispersion compensation factors. This aperture size enables handling of larger beam diameters and provides increased flexibility for beam displacement.
The laser output couplers are designed to provide 88% reflection and 12% transmission across the center of the Ti:sapphire laser output wavelength range. These are the first off-the-shelf output couplers to deliver high surface flatness (¡Ü¦Ë/10) with a thickness of only 3 mm. Minimizing the thickness of such an optic minimizes its group velocity dispersion and hence minimizes unwanted pulse stretching.
The new beam sampler is a front surface beamsplitter for pick-off applications. The front surface is uncoated and the rear surface has a broadband antireflection coating to eliminate ghost reflection and maximize transmission. The optic also has a slight wedge to eliminate etalon effects. These beam samplers are now offered with a thickness of only 3 mm for the first time.
Source: Newport Corporation