News Article
QD Laser commercialises 1064-nm DFB Laser
The Japanese firm says its latest module exhibits excellent single-mode oscillation and is suited to a variety of applications in CW or pulsed operations.
QD Laser is commercially releasing its latest technology innovation, the QLD1061, a single-mode distributed feedback (DFB) laser module emitting at a wavelength of around 1064 nm.
Recently, semiconductor lasers with near-infrared (NIR) wavelength band of around 1064 nm have been very popular in many applications including fibre lasers for material processing, LIDAR, frequency conversion for generating exotic wavelengths and gas sensing. To expand the application area, single-mode lasers with stable operation have been highly required.
The QLD1061 offers strong fibre output power (> 30 mW) and narrow spectral linewidth (< 10 MHz) with stable single-mode oscillation The DFB laser chip is packaged in a standard 14-pin butterfly laser module with an optical isolator. The module has an output pigtail using a polarization maintaining fibre.
The design of the laser chip in the QLD1061 is based on DFB laser technology usually used in telecom applications, where quite high wavelength stability is required. Reliable packaging including a built-in optical isolator also contributes to the stability. In continuous-wave (CW) operation, the QLD1061 provides high side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) even when changing the output power in a wide range of operating temperatures.
In pulsed operation, a stable short pulse train between 50 ps and 100 ns is generated with low amplitude noise and low timing jitter maintaining high SMSR. These characteristics of the QLD1061 are different from conventional wavelength-stabilised lasers such as a fibre grating based external cavity laser.
From the evaluations of prototypes of the QLD1061 by global innovative companies, QD Laser says it has received many positive responses. The QLD1061 is very suitable for variety of applications in CW or pulsed operation, for example, an injection seeder of a fibre laser and a wavelength sweeper for sensing.
QD Laser hopes the QLD1061 will contribute to a performance improvement and market expansion of many systems with NIR wavelength range semiconductor lasers.
QD Laser will exhibit the QLD1061 on the following dates:
April 13–15, 2011 Photonix Japan 2011, Tokyo, Japan (Hikari, Booth # 42-34)
April 20–22, 2011 LaserEXPO, Yokohama, Japan (Booth # M-22)
May 23–26, 2011 LASER World of PHOTONICS, Munich, Germany (Booth # B1-310)
