• Home   |   
• Technology   |   
• Applications   |   
• Products   |   
• Resources   |   
• News   |   
• About Us   |   
• Contact Us

the deep photonics technology revolution

For years, laser scientists have been struggling with market demands for ever increasing power requirements at ever shrinking wavelengths.  The conventional laser industry has performed nobly, inventing unique, novel and usually quite complicated methods in physical optics to achieve ever stringent requirements using traditional optical materials. It is the physical and optical limitations of these same materials which resulted in an impeding solid-state laser technology barrier. This technology barrier limited UV lasers to a few hundred milliwatts and useful pulsed lasers to wavelengths above 300nm.

Anticipating this substantial technology barrier, scientists at Deep Photonics embarked on an expedition to invent a completely new class of optically active non-linear materials to enable next generation solid state laser technology.

Breakthrough material science – Following a decade of research and development, scientists at Deep Photonics solved a nagging problem that had plagued laser physicists for years – namely, how to produce an optical frequency converting material that was useful deep into the ultra-violet region of the spectrum, while still maintaining mechanical integrity under extreme operating conditions.

With a fortuitous combination of hard work and a little luck, the researchers systematically stepped their way through thousands of compounds, 10 years of modeling, analysis, and trial and error to arrive at the world’s most robust non-linear optical crystal capable of converting laser light below 300nm. This new, disruptive class of material dwarfs previous non-linear optical materials in its ability to efficiently convert visible laser light into the deep ultra-violet portion of the spectrum while thriving in wickedly brutal power conditions in high-performance wave mixing configurations.

Disruptive fiber laser design – Much like the breakthrough in semiconductor materials eventually led to the pioneering wonders of the internet, the discovery of Deep Photonics’ revolutionary new optical material has led to ground-breaking advancements in fiber laser design. Unshackled by the constraints and limitations of traditional optical materials, the fiber laser development team at Deep Photonics has been able to exercise the freedom to investigate and pursue fiber laser concepts which, only a few years ago, were hypothetical intellectual dreams.  Advancements in extreme flux density laser design have opened a whole new laser category utilizing robust fiber laser pump sources. The non-linear processes generated at exceptionally high peak power produce deep ultraviolet laser light at wavelengths, power levels and conversion efficiencies never before possible. The combination of the Deep Photonics materials and extreme fiber laser technologies has resulted in solid state lasers with price, performance and footprint characteristics unrivaled by any other laser on the market.

Crystal Development – Breakthrough optical materials are the foundation for Deep Photonics' advanced laser technology.  From its inception, the company has excelled in both fiber laser design and innovative materials development: most significantly the discovery, development and production of novel frequency-converting crystals.  This ground-breaking effort has enabled Deep Photonics to produce solid-state, deep ultraviolet (DUV) fiber lasers at wavelengths and power levels unattainable by any other technology available today.  Over the last 10 years, our scientists have pioneered advanced alternatives to conventional NLO crystals. Deep Photonics has developed novel crystal growth methods producing a new family of materials especially well suited for DUV lasers. The superset of attributes which differentiate our family of materials from conventional materials include:

• Optical transparency to 165nm
• Phase-matching to 190nm
• Support of very high flux densities (>100 GW/cm2)
• Completely insensitive to moisture
• Long life with no gray-tracking
• Mechanically hard and durable

Extensive deployment of non-oxidizing metal, ceramic support components and high-damage threshold lenses and coatings results in elegant, highly reliable and surprisingly simple laser designs.  The simplicity and high-damage threshold dramatically reduces points of failure, delivering unprecedented DUV laser performance.