TOPTICA EAGLEYARD

We love space projects and that’s why we felt thrilled to sponsor the "EPIC Technology Meeting on Photonics for New Space – Optical Communication during ESA Industry Days” that took place successfully this week with many very exciting topics (EPIC - EUROPEAN PHOTONICS INDUSTRY CONSORTIUM).   Did you know that we have space heritage for 760 nm, 852 nm and 1064 nm? That is based on GAIA (ESA), CATS (NASA), ExoMars (ESA) and MERLIN (DLR/CNES) programs and as we’re currently working on several new missions, our space heritage portfolio will grow even more in the future (stay tuned for more insights very soon).   All of our other wavelengths in butterfly platform fulfill relevant parts of ESCC 23201/23202, MIL and Telcordia standards and can be easily qualified for space applications. Moreover, laser diodes can be customized as free beam or fiber-coupled or with other standard DFB wavelengths. Generally, various DFB-butterfly products can be rated between TRL6 and TRL9 depending on its specific configuration.   Do you love space projects as much as we do?

When you think you know them all and suddenly notice that you don’t recall the name of a colleague when getting a coffee, then you start to doubt yourself. Luckily, this has happened to many colleagues here at TOPTICA EAGLEYARD recently and the reason is very simple: We’ve grown by 22 % over the past two years with regards to the number of employees. An amazing development – and a challenge to remember all new names and faces. 😉 With a special onboarding and buddy program in place we make sure that new employees do not only feel welcome but get the right input very quickly to internalize our vision and strategy, get to know all departments and become familiar with the tasks of their specific position. And of course, our regular team and company events help tremendously to make the integration smoother so that we get a lot better at recalling names when getting our next coffee.   This September we welcomed eight new employees during our onboarding day - great to have you here! 😊    

Everybody knows what a DFB laser is, but do you also know what a RWS laser is?   Maybe not and that is not surprising as “RWS” is a word creation by TOPTICA EAGLEYARD – it stands for “Rich Waveguide Stabilized” and uses the same chip material, design and technology as classical DFB lasers – but at half the price – something unique at the market and that’s why we had to create a new category name for them. 😉   RWS lasers are specifically developed for industrial usage, mainly for interferometry and users that are very price sensitive. RWS lasers can make your project become reality when you need a small linewidth but are +/- 3 nm flexible with regards to the center wavelength tolerance as the RWS has a broader specification range than a DFB laser diode. We guarantee a mode-hop free range when operating conditions are set ideally.   Our RWS laser is available at 780 nm - a sweet spot for great performance of the laser and sensitivity for Si detectors that are available at very low costs compared to other wavelengths making our RWS laser a real ‘cost-saver’ in purchase and (!) usage.   When working with blood flow measurement in life science or industrial measurement technology like speed and distance measurement, vibration or thickness measurement make sure to check out our RWS lasers!

Why make it complicated when there is an easy solution? Every time we see the difference between a classical ECDL set-up and a miniaturized ECDL like our miniECL there is always a little “wow-moment”.   ➡ A wow for the high integration – thermal management, optics and grating are integrated in the butterfly package.   ➡ A wow for the significantly reduced set-up time. Cavity alignment as for the classical ECDL is no longer necessary.   ➡ A wow for the matching evaluation board for even faster testing and preparation.   ➡ A wow for the robustness: Due to the hermetically sealed butterfly package, the usage of the miniECL is independent of environmental changes (e.g. humidity, air pressure), has shock-stability and is robust against vibrations.   ➡ A wow for the extreme stability due to integrated temperature control without any moving parts inside the butterfly package.   ➡ A wow for the spectral linewidth of <150 kHz.   ➡ A wow for the wide range: 671 nm, 770 nm, 780 nm, 852 nm, 895 nm are currently available.   When working in quantum technologies, spectroscopy, metrology or life science, make sure to take a closer look at the miniECL as it may be a true game-changer for you, too!   Have you already tried our miniECL?

High quality is an essential part of TOPTICA EAGLEYARD’s DNA. We’re making sure that every laser diode that leaves our company premises is thoroughly tested with regards to endurance, environmental changes, mechanical stress, thermal vacuum, radiation and aging. Let’s take a closer look at aging tests today.   Typically, a statistically representative test group of laser diodes runs through an aging test and additionally, every product masters a “burn-in” test as screening measure before it is shipped. But as we have very high quality standards, we decided to go even a step further and developed an inhouse aging test system that is more advanced and precise. There is an expert team involved and our colleagues from manufacturing engineering and quality management work closely together.   EAGLEYARD’s newest aging test equipment for a large space program is designed with 40 individually controlled channels that all allow in-situ monitoring of six individual laser parameters: laser drive current, heat sink temperature, laser voltage, optical power >/< 1000 nm and back facet monitoring. Long-term tests of >10,000 hours are possible as well as short-term burn in sequences (<100 hours). Special test rails were developed that contain 10 laser diodes each and have proper electrical connections for precise measurements and high accuracy. Operational Qualification (OQ) of such equipment consists of a DoE (Design of Experiment) test plan and gage R&R (repeatability & reproducibility) with six focus areas: functional test and specification limits, accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility and long term stability. Extensive aging test like this are often used for space programs but can be applied for any application that requires outstanding reliability.   Being experts not only in the development and manufacturing of laser diodes feels already great, but developing and mastering our own testing equipment to prove performance and reliability of the diodes feels extremely magnificent! Talk to us to find out more about quality standards and laser diode performance – we can’t wait! 😀      #EAGLEYARD #laserdiodes #THINKINGBEYOND #photonics            

“What’s best for my spectroscopic application – a DFB or a miniECL?” - we often hear this question and would like to give you some guidance.   If you’re looking for a laser with a broad mode hop free tuning range, we highly recommend a Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser diode while the miniECL is ideal when you require a very narrow linewidth.   DFB lasers exhibit linear behavior in wavelength, making them ideal for applications that require stable and continuous tuning.   On the other hand, if your application requires a very narrow linewidth, the miniECL is the ideal choice. While miniECLs have mode hops (as displayed in the graphic), they offer a very narrow linewidth, typically around 100 kHz. This makes them perfect for applications where precision at a specific wavelength is crucial, and a broad tuning range is not necessary.   Both products are available in a 14 pin hermetically sealed butterfly package with free space output. Our DFB laser diodes in 14 pin butterfly packages are additionally available fiber-coupled and/or with integrated isolator. Moreover, TO-packages complete our DFB portfolio.   Remember, DFB lasers must be selected carefully making sure its assets match to your requirements. We’re looking forward to helping you find the ideal solution! You can also check our product finder and select relevant criteria for your search (link in comment).

Application insights are probably the most interesting part of our jobs. Developing and measuring innovative laser diode is great – but seeing what these products enable along the value chain is impressive. 🤩   We plan to share many application insight stories with you in the upcoming months and would like to start with CareGlance Srl today – an Italian company that develops photonic devices for real-time monitoring of industrial applications.   ➡️Read the whole case here: https://bit.ly/3zfZbNY   Thank you Maria Chiara Ubaldi for sharing so many interesting facts with us!

We had a great time at the EPIC - EUROPEAN PHOTONICS INDUSTRY CONSORTIUM Technology Meeting on “Photonic Integration and Packaging” at Fraunhofer IZM this week. Very valuable insights and presentations – thank you to everybody who made these two days so valuable. 🤗

There are some moments that simply make you feel very proud. One of this moment occurred last fall. After a visit at Harvard university, we received an e-mail stating “I feel like the whole field of cold atoms will be dominated by your lasers in the next 5 years.” Wow – so let’s talk about laser cooling. 😉   Laser cooling is a cool way (pun intended!) to slow down and control the movement of tiny particles called atoms. Imagine it as a high-tech method that helps scientists chill atoms to extremely low temperatures. Lithium is a special kind of metal that has simple characteristics, making it perfect for cooling experiments. By using lasers, scientists can cool lithium atoms down to super low temperatures, allowing them to create unique quantum states and measure things with incredible precision. This wasn‘t possible before laser cooling came along in the 1980s. Here‘s the basic idea: Laser cooling works like a gentle breeze for atoms. Just as a breeze can slow you down, lasers slow down atoms by making them absorb and then release light particles (photons). This process lowers the atoms‘ energy and makes them really, really cold. For lithium, scientists use a laser with a specific color, like 671 nm, to cool it efficiently. Now, why is this cool (pun intended again 😉)? Well, when we cool down lithium atoms using lasers, they become great candidates for something called quantum computing. It‘s like they become tiny, super-efficient processors for futuristic computers that can process information really, really quickly. As scientists keep exploring laser cooling and playing around with lithium atoms, they‘re discovering new things in areas like fancy optics, the tiniest bits of matter, and super cool technologies. So, laser cooling is not just a cool trick; it‘s a whole area of exciting research that‘s helping us understand and use atoms in amazing ways.   We’re happy to be involved here and empower visions to become reality! If you’re interested in laser cooling, check out our miniECL and/or miniTA!