Laser Science brings to you the latest news and research, from some of the global leaders in laser manufacturing and technological innovation.

1. Laser Science Partners Four New Principals from Around the Globe
Newly Launched Prod-
ucts:
• Coherent’s Fidelity 1055
- 2, a High Power Fem-
tosecond Fiber Laser
• PCO’s new PCO.Edge
gold 5.5 sCMOS camera
• Hinds Instruments’ all
new Exicor Micro Imager
• Coherent’s Astrella - the
next generation Ultrafast
Ti: Sapphire amplifier
Inside this issue:
Semrock Announces an
Industry-leading Ten
2
Beneq wins Tekes Com-
mercialization Break-
through award
2
THz Laser Chip Sets
Power Records
2
Research Paper: Sensitive
trace gas detection using
a continuous wave quan-
tum cascade laser
3
Bringing Tomorrow’s Technology to Indian Labs
In the last 3 months, Laser Science has installed a num-
ber of new systems across various labs in India. The
most recent of these is Excimer Laser ComPex Pro
102F from Coherent GmbH at the National Center for
Nano-Science and Technology, Mumbai in February
2014.
Another prestigious installation was that of the Com-
Pex Pro 205F from Coherent GmbH at TIFR Mumbai,
in January 2014 .
In November 2013, Coherent’s Excimer Laser Com-
Pex Pro 201F was installed at DIAT, Pune and Neo-
cera’s Pioneer 180 PED System, was installed at the
University of Mumbai.
L A S E R S C I E N C E S E R V I C E S ( I ) P V T . L T D .
MAR 2014
ISSUE 4
Laser Science closed its silver jubilee year, with four new
partners from different parts of the globe, whom the
company will exclusively represent in India. These in-
clude EOT (Electro-Optics Technology, Inc.) from USA,
LIOP-TEC from Germany, Daylight Solutions from USA
and Zomega Terahertz Corporation.
Dr. Lalit Kumar, Managing Director of Laser Science,
said, “Keeping in line with our vision of bringing the most
futuristic technology to India, and with a view to help the
laser and photonics industry in our country grow, we are
proud to associate ourselves with both young and experi-
enced global players, who bring a wide range of unique
expertise, products and technological solutions, to our
industry.”
EOT is a 22yr old player, which specifically focuses on
OEM and custom applications, working closely with
customers from the beginning of the customer’s project,
all the way through to production. Current products
include Faraday rotators/isolators and fiber collimators
for use with laser diodes, fiber lasers and solid-state la-
sers; and photo detectors used to monitor the output of
pulsed, mode-locked and externally modulated CW
lasers.
LIOPTEC Gmbh is a young player founded in Germany,
in the year 2012 by Dr. Jurgen Lindener, who has over
20yrs of experience in lasers and Dr. Michael Gutmann
who was formerly, the head of a re-
search group in physical chemistry
focusing on applying lasers to solving
problems in molecular science. LIOP-
TEC primarily deals in pulse dye la-
sers, OPOs and opto-mechanics. Dye
lasers can be pumped using ns
Nd:YAG lasers and excimer lasers.
Daylight Solutions was founded in
January 2005 with a purpose of ad-
vancing Quantum Cascade Laser
(QCL) technology for commercial,
medical, and defense applications. In 2010, Daylight Solu-
tions created Daylight Defense, a wholly owned subsidiary,
which quickly became the world leader in advanced, mid-
infrared laser systems for defense applications. Today, Day-
light Defense continues to increase its involvement in ad-
vanced laser-based systems for protecting personnel in com-
bat, by manufacturing products for the defense department .
Zomega Terahertz Corporation was formed in 2005 to
commercialize recent advances in terahertz technology,
with a mission to deliver complete THz systems and
solutions to industry, academia and public sector custom-
ers. Zomega deals in both pre-designed and custom sys-
tems for time-domain spectroscopy, inspection and non-
destructive testing; and CW applications in both point
measurement and imaging modalities, with true turnkey
operation and integration into larger systems requiring
THz capabilities.
Dr. Lalit Kumar,
Managing Director,
Laser Science.
Tomorrow Today
- A Laser Science Newsletter
Neocera’s Pioneer 180 PED Chamber, at the
University of Mumbai

2. Semrock, Inc., recently announced that it is extending its
long-standing five-year warranty to an industry-leading ten-
year. This warranty continues to guarantee that all optical
filters shipped from Semrock will consistently meet the
published performance specifications when used under
normal operating conditions. With over one million optical
filters shipped, Semrock confidently extends the warranty,
further setting the standard for reliable optical filters.
Semrock warrants that its optical filters will meet their
stated specifications under normal use for ten years from
the date of sale.
Semrock Announces an Industry-
leading Ten Year Warranty
THz Laser Chip Sets Power Records
PAGE 2
TOMORROW TODAY
- A LASER SCIENCE NEWSLETTER
LEEDS, England, Feb. 19, 2014 — A newly devel-
oped terahertz laser chip is already setting records as
the most powerful in the world.
A team from the University of Leeds has engineered
a quantum cascade terahertz laser that exceeds 1-W
output power, more than doubling landmarks set
previously by the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy and, more recently, by researchers in Vienna.
Terahertz waves can penetrate materials that block
visible light and have applications ranging from
chemical analysis to security. However, a main chal-
lenge is making the lasers powerful and compact
enough to be useful. The lasers developed at Leeds
are a few square millimeters in size.
“Although it is possible to build large instruments
that generate powerful beams of terahertz radiation,
these instruments are only useful for a limited set of
applications,” said Edmund Linfield, professor of
terahertz electronics at the university’s School of
Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
The researchers developed multilayer semiconduc-
tors such as gallium arsenide one atomic monolayer
at a time. They
controlled the
thickness and
composition of
each individual
layer and created
semiconductor
materials between
1000 and 2000
layers thick, Lin-
field said, which
resulted in the
new laser chip’s
record power.
Potential applica-
tions for the tiny chip include monitoring pharmaceutical
products, remote sensing of chemical signatures of explosives
in unopened envelopes, telecommunications, and noninva-
sive detection of cancers in the human body.
The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council, and has been published
in Electronics Letters. (doi: 10.1049/el.2013.4035)
A computer-generated image of the
world's most powerful THz laser, devel-
oped by the University of Leeds. Courtesy
University of Leeds.
On Wednesday, 11 December 2013, Beneq received a
special commercialization breakthrough award from Tekes, the
Finnish funding agency for technology and innovation, as part
of its six-year-long functional materials program. The goal of
the program was to promote the development of application-
focused materials and processes, as well as to raise foreign in-
vestor awareness of Finland’s exceptionally high level of mate-
rial expertise.
Beneq was selected for the commercialization breakthrough
award thanks to the company’s outstanding work on two par-
ticular commercialized projects: Transparent Conductive Ox-
ide (TCO) for aerosol applications and Roll-to-Roll Atomic
Layer Deposition (ALD).
Beneq Wins Tekes Commercialization
Breakthrough Award

3. Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) discovered in the early 90’s represent a novel and non-traditional approach to generating
radiation in the mid-infrared (MIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum by employing a periodic superlattice. Unlike
semiconductor lasers, it is possible to achieve one-dimensional quantum-well confinement in such structures as a result of
which, QCLs are capable of generating very high power outputs. More importantly, they offer the key advantage of tunability
over a wide range of wavelengths without having to switch to different material systems in order to do so.
As a result of these unique features, QCLs are well suited for high resolution spectroscopy applications wherein MIR radia-
tion is required to excite molecular species of interest. One such application is the detection of trace gas molecules. In order
to achieve highly selective and sensitive detection of gas molecules down to the ppb limit, it is essential to couple an excita-
tion source such as a QCL, with a spectroscopy technique that is capable of enhancing the effective optical path length of ra-
diation, far beyond that which is defined by the dimensions of the system. In their work, J. H. van Helden et al. report on the
use of a simple cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS) sensor that uses a continuous wave external-cavity (EC)
QCL operating at 7.4 microns.
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the experimental setup that was used in van Helden’s study. The water-cooled EC-QCL pur-
chased from Daylight Solutions, was tunable in the 1300–1445 cm-1
region and included a mode-hop free range of 1345–
1400cm-1
. The output power of this system was in excess of 80 mW over the entire working range and the maximum achiev-
able output power was found to be 150 mW. The CEAS cavity obtained from Los Gatos Research Inc., consisted of two
highly reflective mirrors positioned 32 cm apart with a specified reflectivity of greater than 95% over the whole working
range of the laser.
To establish a benchmark for the sensitivity that can be realized using this system, the authors attempt to detect trace concen-
trations of methane (CH4) in air. As can be seen in Figure 2, the integrated CEAS signal as a function of the CH4concentra-
tion in air samples of different total pressures is plotted. The authors also note that the QCL used in this study can be tailored
to perform consistently outside the mode-hop free area by tuning either the temperature or the current of the laser in order
to avoid mode-hops in the spectra.
In conclusion, this study successfully highlights the promising potential of QCL based CEAS and that of QCLs in general, for
gas detection applications. The demonstrated detection limit of 6 parts per billion and effective optical path length of 1780m
are among the highest metrics reported to date using such a system.
Research Paper: Sensitive trace gas detection
using a continuous wave quantum cascade laser
PAGE 3
ISSUE 4
Further information regarding this work can be found in the following journal article: J. H. van Hel-
den, N. Lang, U. Macherius, H. Zimmermann, and J. Ropcke, App. Phys. Lett.,103 1131114 (2013).
Figure 1 Figure 2

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E-mail: sales@laserscience.in
www.laserscience.co.in
Incepted in 1988 by Dr. Lalit Kumar, Laser Science is In-
dia's premier distributor of lasers and spectroscopy instru-
ments. Our range of products covers scientific and indus-
trial laser systems, spectroscopy, microscopy & imaging
systems. We distribute over 36 major brands that are repu-
table global market leaders in their respective fields. Our
extensive customer coverage includes R&D institutions and
commercial & industrial organizations all over India.
Our strategic focus is on continuously exceeding customer
expectations, a commitment to quality, proactive market
development and providing the most superior quality cus-
tomer service.
Headquartered in Navi Mumbai , Laser Science has regional
sales offices in Chennai, Delhi & Kolkata.
L A S E R S C I E N C E
S E R V I C E S ( I ) P V T . L T D .
Hinds Instruments announces the all new Exicor Micro
Imager
Hinds Instruments has applied the power
& versatility of the Photo Elastic Modula-
tors (PEM) to produce the Birefringence
Imaging Microscope - The Exicor® Mi-
croImager. This offers researchers in
academia and industry the ability to evalu-
ate birefringence of both biological and
industrial materials. With a digital resolu-
tion of 0.01nm, a detection limit (noise
floor) of 0.1 nm and a measurement
range of beyond 300nm (using red
light), this new instrument offers quick
and reliable measurements in an integrated system package that in-
cludes camera, optics, electronics, sample stage hardware and soft-
ware.
Coherent announces the launch of its all new Astrella, the
next generation Ultrafast Ti: Sapphire amplifier
Astrella, the next generation one-
box, Ti:Sapphire amplifier, com-
bines market-leading performance
with industrial reliability. It is
specified to provide >6 mJ pulse
energy at 1 kHz, 800 nm in a near
transform-limited, sub-35 fs pulse
width. The integrated, one-box
design employs the new STAR regenerative amplifier module for
increased energy, beam quality and stability. Its applications include
time-resolved spectroscopy, multi-dimensional spectroscopy, THz
spectroscopy and fs micromachining, among others.
Coherent Inc, USA launches the all new high power femto-
second fiber laser—The Fidelity 1055 - 2
Fidelity is a revolutionary ultrafast
fiber laser that offers a unique combi-
nation of high average power and
extremely short pulses in a simple to
operate, maintenance free & compact
package. Its features include, the
shortest specified pulse length from a
commercial fiber laser, high average
power >2W, compact foot print, air
cooled, R - 232 interface and many more. It can be used in time re-
solved, non-linear spectroscopy; Multi Photon Excitation (MPE) mi-
croscopy; optogenetic microscopy; terahertz generation, super contin-
uum generation, amplifier seeding, etc.
PCO launches the new PCO.Edge gold 5.5
A breakthrough in scientific imaging
cameras, due to its distinctive ability
to simultaneously deliver extremely
low noise, good frame rates, wide
dynamic range, high quantum effi-
ciency, high resolution and large field
of view - all in one image. Its key fea-
tures include quantum efficiency of image sensor >60% , spectral
range of camera : 370nm - 1100nm, camera pixel scan rate : 86.0
MHz and camera non linearity <0.6%. It is best used in the fields of
astronomy, live cell microscopy, localization microscopy, photovoltaic
inspection, high content screening, biological & chemical luminescence
and flow cytometry, among others.
Newly Launched Products
B R I N G I N G T O M O R R O W ’ S T E C H N O L O G Y T O D A Y
Fidelity 1055-2 from
Coherent Inc, USA
PCO.edge Gold 5.5
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE!CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE!CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE!CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE!
Hinds Instruments’
Exicor MicroImager
Astrella by Coherent