Alfalight bags $5.9 million for laser innovation
Wisconsin-based high-efficiency laser manufacturer Alfalight has won $5.9 million under two separate programs funded by the US military.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has provided the company with $1.4 million for the second part of its super-high-efficiency diodes (SHEDS) program.
Alfalight recently demonstrated a 71%-efficient laser bar emitting 55 W (see related story), a result that has since been verified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Now DARPA is raising the bar further. The aim for Alfalight now is to make a stacked array of lasers producing 480 W and with a power conversion efficiency of 80%.
Although part of that improvement can be made by further reducing optical and electrical loss mechanisms, Alfalight says that it will also look to change the fundamental structure of the lasers using quantum dots and different epitaxy methods.
Manoj Kanskar, Alfalight's VP of research and development, is presenting the company's latest results at DARPATech in Anaheim, CA, this week.
Alfalight has won a further $4.5 million through another military contract, this time with the Army Research Laboratory.
The goal of this 12-month program is to demonstrate a multimode laser diode with an output of 1 kW.
If successful, the development should lead to better modules for fiber-laser pumping and for use in direct materials processing applications.
"The results of this program will foster new techniques for delivering power from multiple diodes into small spot sizes and fibers," said Kanskar.
