Nanosecond Lasers

Learn More About Nanosecond Lasers

With a q-switch, a high-speed shutter is introduced into the optical cavity to temporarily increase the cavity losses until the gain materials metastable level is fully saturated.  Once the switch is opened, all of the light is emitted at one time.  For most laser gain materials, the depletion time is on the order of a few nanoseconds (10^-9s), resulting in the generation of laser pulses.

Solid-state (DPSS) lasers, fiber lasers, and microchip lasers can all be q-switched and therefore used to produce nanosecond pulse width lasers. Because of the wide range of gain materials and technologies, nanosecond lasers are available in a vast wavelength range from the ultraviolet through the infrared region, pulse energies from nJ to J, and repetition rates varying from Hz to MHz.  The high peak power and short pulse widths of these lasers are ideal for a wide range of applications including LIBS, laser designation, and marking.

Our Nanosecond Laser Products

RPMC lasers offers a wide range of high-quality nanosecond pulsed lasers, in numerous wavelengths, designed with repetition rates ranging from single-shot up to 2 MHz, short pulse durations from 125ns down to sub-nanosecond, and various pulse energy specifications, depending on the configuration.

Our nanosecond lasers are available in the UV, Violet, Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, NIR, SWIR, and MWIR spectral regions.  We supply diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers, fiber lasers, microchip lasers, tunable DPSS lasers, MIL-Spec. Lasers, and DPSS amplifiers in our nanosecond laser category.

Our Nanosecond Laser Experience

RPMC is your Nanosecond Laser Supplier! We have supplied 1000’s of nanosecond lasers for many various applications across multiple markets. Whether you’re working with military standards, looking for a laser source for your OEM project, or performing scientific research, we have the experience to help you find the right laser at the best price.

Deeper Dive Into Nanosecond Lasers

Peak Power and Average Power in ns and Sub-ns Lasers

The extremely high peak power levels achievable by pulsed laser sources are among the main reason for their success in many of the applications which have emerged in the last decades. Therefore, a precise estimation of the laser peak power, given other operational parameters such as average power, pulse duration, and repetition rate, is fundamental to select the best option for a particular application among the different commercial alternatives. In principle, it is quite simple to calculate the peak power, considering the actual temporal profile of the laser pulse. By assuming a train of continuously repeated, periodical, square pulses with repetition rate fR, pulse duration tP and average power PAV, the pulse energy EP and peak power PP calculations are trivial, with pulse energy provided by the ratio between average power and repetition rate and peak power provided by the ratio between energy and pulse duration:

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Passive vs Active Q-Switching

Q-switching is the most effective method for producing high energy pulsed lasers.  While there are many different varieties of a q-switch, they all follow the same basic operating principle.  Q-switches temporarily increase the cavity losses so that the gain threshold is artificially high preventing the laser from emitting light.  This process allows the population inversion inside of the gain medium to grow until it becomes fully saturated.  At this point, the q-switch is “opened” causing the cavity losses to plummet, dropping the gain threshold, and allowing all of the stored energy in the gain medium to be emitted in one rapid pulse.  This process, which is illustrated in the figure below causes the emission of extremely short pulses of light with extremely high peak powers.

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Custom, Integrated System Platforms for Customer-Specific Applications

In their modern applications lab, ideal for proof-of-concept testing and sample processing, they provide a host of DPSS laser configurations with a range of wavelengths and power levels.  Their dedicated staff has years of application experience and offer process development support to help get your project up and running. The experience of the applications lab experts covers a broad range of materials and processing techniques. For example, with glass and sapphire, they have demonstrated lens marking, surface engraving, microchannel processing, dicing, hole drilling, and intra-volume marking. They can perform color marking on stainless steel, deep 3D laser milling on synthetic polycrystalline diamond (PCD), micro-hole drilling through nickel iron alloy, gray scale marking on plastics, high contrast marking on heat-sensitive polymeric materials, and many other successful application examples.

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Let Us Help

With 1000s of fielded units, and over 25 years of experience, providing OEMs, contract manufacturers, and researchers with the best laser solution for their application, our expert team is ready to help! Working with RPMC ensures you are getting trusted advice from our knowledgeable and technical staff on a wide range of laser products.  RPMC and our manufacturers are willing and able to provide custom solutions for your unique application.

If you have any questions, or if you would like some assistance please Contact Us here. Furthermore, you can email us at info@rpmclasers.com to talk to a knowledgeable Product Manager.

Alternatively, use the filters on this page to assist in narrowing down the selection of Nanosecond Lasers for sale. Finally, head to our Knowledge Center with our Lasers 101 page and Blogs, Whitepapers, and FAQ pages for further, in-depth reading.

Check out our Online Store: This page contains In-Stock products and an ever-changing assortment of various types of new lasers at marked-down/discount prices.