Component Blog Posts

Despite the recent economic depression caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the medical industry has seen continued growth. Among the new industry opportunities, demand for medical devices has spiked. In this article, we’ll discuss one device in particular, the pulse oximeter, and the role VCSELs play in enhancing these devices to further support the medical industry and the fight against… Read More

In this blog, the concept of “Raman Concatenation” is explained as a measurement technique utilized to overcome many of the previously outlined trade-offs. In general, many Raman measurements suffer from fluorescence, which forces the use of longer excitation wavelength (lower photon energy) lasers to prevent the fluorescence signal from overwhelming the Raman signal. However, this results in reduced sensitivity of low-cost silicon CCD detectors at higher wavenumbers, making it difficult (or impossible) to observe the “stretch” portion of the Raman spectra (i.e. 2000 – 4… Read More

Single-frequency lasers have long been the cornerstone of standoff gas detection applications, particularly in traditional LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), DIAL (Differential Absorption LIDAR), and TDLAS (Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy).  More recently, as single-frequency laser diodes have become more common and less expensive, they are being utilized in more localized and industrial gas sensing app… Read More

Jenoptik is now offering the JOLD-275-CPNN-1L, their latest development in the field of high-power laser sources for industrial material processing, medical, and life science applications. Thanks to Jenoptik’s patented mounting and bonding technology, this new, passively cooled diode laser is able to achieve extremely high performance in hard pulse and CW applications. Jenoptik also utilizes the efficient and high-performance semiconductor materials they produce themselves to manufacture their high-power las… Read More

LDX Optronics and RPMC Lasers have been partnered together since the late ’90s to provide customers with the broadest selection of diode wavelengths and packaging configurations on the market.  Over the course of our nearly 25-year relationship with LDX, we have seen their multimode diode laser capabilities grow to encompass sources ranging all the way from 400nm to 1900nm and power levels up to 40W.  However, the most impressive thing about LDX is there packaging expertise, which allows them to supply an incredibly diverse range of standard laser diode packages as well as customized a… Read More

Diode lasers come in a wide variety of packaging configurations. Each package type provides different pros and cons when it comes to beam delivery, heat sinking, integration, and so on.  The two most common packages for what we call “component level” diode lasers are the TO-can and the 14-pin butterfly package.  While there are some exceptions, in general, the TO-can is the preferred packaging for open beam laser delivery, and the butterfly is preferred for fiber-coupled beam d… Read More

Having trouble deciding which fiber-coupling connection is best for you? Check out our newest white paper, titled “Choosing the Right Connector for Your Fiber-Coupled Laser Diode.”  In this paper, we review: Pros and cons of the most common fiber optic connectors and the Importance of the self-centeri… Read More

When you look through a window at night and see your reflection, that is because on average 4% of the incident light is reflected at the interface between air and glass.   While 4% may seem like a small amount when dealing with lasers, a 4% back reflection can have more than enough power to destabilize or even permanently destroy the laser.    If the laser beam is perfectly aligned through the system, so too will the back reflections be perfectly aligned to go back into the las… Read More

Electric power is determined by the product of the voltage and current supplied to a device. As a result, when designing an adjustable power supply, one of those two parameters must be variable, and the other constant if you want to be able to tune the power supply to your desired output. These two types of supplies are known broadly as constant current (CC) and constant voltage (CV) output circuits. When driving a laser diode, both CC and CV power supplies have pros and cons, but the rule of thumb is that you should always use a CC supply and never… Read More

Ever since the industrial fiber laser boom in the early 2000’s, there has been an ongoing debate about the most efficient way to produce high power, fiber-coupled, diode pump lasers. At its root, this debate comes down to the question of single-emitters versus diode bars. While single-emitters cannot come close to the power levels produced by diode bars, typically only producing a few watts of output power, they have several advantages over bars that make them far more desirable for systems in… Read More

In part one of this blog series, we set out to answer the question of “how to get the right laser spot at the right distance?”  As we went on to explain, this simple question doesn’t have a simple answer, especially when we are talking about single-mode fiber optics.  In that post, we took the time to go through
an introduction of Gaussian beam optics and provided a few examples of how that can be used to determine the lens you need to choose for a given spot size.  In part two, we are going to explore the far more straightforward case of imaging a multi-mode las… Read More

RPMC is proud to announce the release of their new Homogenized Multi-Mode 14-Pin BF Diode.  This multi-mode, wavelength stabilized laser features high output power with low power consumption and narrow spectral bandwidth. Another exciting feature is the shaped and homogenized beam profile, which evenly spreads out the power density and shapes the beam to match the field of view of a camera. The Homogenized Multi-Mode 14-Pin BF Diode is designed to replace expensive DFB, DBR, fiber, and external cavi… Read More

Building upon our recent series of blog posts on fiber-coupled diode lasers, we now turn our attention to how you can manipulate the laser light coming out of a fiber.  Perhaps the most common question we get here at RPMC, is how to get a specific laser spot size at a given distance.  This seemingly simple question of “which lens should I use?” or “how to get the right laser spot at the right distance?” is actually a rather complex problem that is highly dependent on the particular type of fi… Read More

For people without a background in electrical engineering, understanding the finer details of analog and digital modulation can be quite challenging.  This is compounded by the fact that most texts on the subject already assume that the reader has a working knowledge of linear systems and Fourier analysis, which can be a significant obstacle for most. Therefore, it is no wonder that one of the most frequently asked questions we get here at RPMC, is “should I use analog or digital modu… Read More

Approximately half of the laser diodes that we provide here at RPMC Lasers are fiber-coupled.  For this reason, we have decided to build upon our recent two-part blog on fiber coupling in our Laser Diode Fundamentals series by exploring the differences between pigtailed laser diodes and fiber-coupled laser diodes.  To understand the differences, first, it is helpful for us to review core diameter, which is an important principle discussed in the first part of our fiber coupling series. When thinking about a fiber’s core, it is useful to separate them into two different categories single-mode and … Read More

As most people already understand, a laser diodes performance is highly dependent on its operating temperature, which is why most mid- to high-end laser packages utilize embedded thermoelectric coolers (TECs).  The strong temperature dependence arises from two fundamental properties of the diode itself.  First, as the temperature of the semiconductor varies, it’s gain band shifts up or down, this is known as redshifting and blu… Read More

Diode lasers are unique amongst most other laser sources for their extensive range of available wavelengths.   The breadth of output wavelengths has allowed diodes to become one of the most versatile laser sources, with wavelengths available from ultraviolet to the infrared.  To understand why semiconductor diodes have such a wide range of wavelength options, we must first take a look at the underlying physical principles behind energy levels and stimulated… Read More

Arroyo Instruments is proud to announce the release of the new 586 Series TECPak.  The 586 TECPak offers up to 392W of output power and its display-less operation is a combination of its smaller brother (the 585 TECPak) plus the high-power output of the 5400 TECSource. Arroyo Instruments designs and manufactures highly accurate laser diode drivers, temperature controllers, and fixtures for test and measurement of laser diodes… Read More

RPMC Lasers has made this blog post to show the top three aesthetic laser applications our customers have worked on. Our team of laser experts have over 100 years of combined experience working with our customers, and during that time, we have helped countless engineers and designers by combining our understanding of lasers with their knowledge of the applications to find the perfect laser solution.  This close partnership between suppliers and end-users allows us to provide informed consultation about both laser specifications and their app… Read More

For over 30 years, the laser diode experts at RPMC Lasers have facilitated successful collaborations between customers and suppliers. Our team prides itself on the knowledge and experience acquired in the industry and our dedication to providing system integrators with customized laser packaging solutions. Over the years, we have worked in conjunction with many engineers and designers to develop novel laser diode solutions, helping to ensure the success of their… Read More

Here at RPMC Lasers, we have over 20 years of experience helping the photonics community with their solid-state laser needs.  Over this time, we have answered a wide range of questions from both end users and system integrators, ranging from application support to laser fundamentals.  Many of the questions we have received over the years have served to influence the topics you have read about on our blog, but for the first time, we are starting a monthly blog series dedicated to frequently asked questions (FAQs) e… Read More

Machine vision is defined as the substitution of the human visual senses and decision-making ability, by image acquisition and computer analysis to perform an inspection task.   This process is most commonly utilized as an active imaging technology to automate inspection and analysis for process control and robot guidance in industrial applications.  As automation has become more and more prevalent in the manufacturing sector, machine vision technology has rapidly grown into one of the largest markets for laser diodes around th… Read More

In the last blog post of our laser diode fundamentals series, we discussed the basics of fiber optics concentrating on two key parameters; core diameter and numerical aperture. In this blog post, we are going to turn the discussion to fiber coupling techniques conventionally used in laser diode packaging including butt coupling, ball lens coupling, and intermediate co… Read More

RPMC Lasers has many lasers that offer a fiber couple… Read More

In this application note, we plan to combine these two topics and look at one of the key factors that affects laser diode bar lifetime – stress and strains.  Despite the extreme power output of laser diode bars and stacks, which can exceed 2 kilowatts of power in quasi continuous wave (QCW) operation, the facet coating technology has improved to the point where it can handle intensities well over 20MW/cm2 making catastrophic optical damage (COD) no longer a limiti… Read More