Freedom Photonics announced its "aura" single mode diode laser amplifier achieved >10 watts optical power amplification at 1550nm with nearly perfect beam quality.
Dr. Jenna Campbell, Director of High Power Laser Engineering at Freedom Photonics, gave an invited paper at the 2022 International Semiconductor Laser Conference (ISLC) stating, “Freedom Photonics’ 1550 nm aura diode laser amplifier has achieved an output power of over 10 Watts (pulsed) with nearly diffraction-limited beam quality.” This result doubles the previous milestone announced in January. Compared to the current industry standard, it represents a roughly two order-of-magnitude increase in the saturation power that can be extracted from a semiconductor optical amplifier and is comparable to the output of many fiber amplifier systems.
Dr. Paul Leisher, VP of Research at Freedom Photonics and ISLC 2022 Program Chair said: "The International Semiconductor Laser Conference is likely the most prestigious conference related to the field of semiconductor lasers and amplifiers. All submitted work undergoes a highly rigorous peer review process, and less than half of the submissions are accepted for oral presentation. Elevation of a contributed presentation to invited status, such as in the case of Dr. Campbell's talk was decided by committee in only a handful of submissions. This is a strong indication of the perceived value and acceptance by the scientific community of the significance of the results achieved by Freedom Photonics."
Dr. Milan Mashanovitch, President of Freedom Photonics noted: “Our auraTM product line is capable of achieving nearly perfect diffraction-limited output at power and brightness levels comparable to fiber laser amplifiers. We strongly believe that the introduction of an all-semiconductor solution for optical power generation and amplification will enable for the first time pushing high power photonics products from the industrial, defense, and aerospace segments into the hands of consumers.”