Purchasing Advisor for Pulsed Lasers

Find all you need for professionally buying pulsed lasers: a comprehensive expert-curated directory of suppliers, scientific and technical background information, and an interactive AI-based tool with guidance for a structured decision process.

You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.

You appear to be visiting from North America. Many listed suppliers are based in this region, making the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide highly relevant for your needs.

Top-level product category: lasers and laser amplifiers

More general product categories: lasers

More specific product categories: burst mode lasers, gain-switched lasers, high-energy lasers, nanosecond lasers, Q-switched lasers

Encyclopedia article: pulsed lasers

Pulsed lasers generate light pulses with varying durations, energies, and peak powers. Types include Q-switched and gain-switched lasers, as well as ultrashort pulse lasers in the picosecond or femtosecond range.

Interactive Purchase Decision Tool

Purchasing high-value photonics products is a substantial responsibility. Using a structured decision-making process and high quality supplier data helps a lot:

• Find all relevant suppliers (not limited to advertisers).
• Our interactive tool conveniently assists you in defining and applying your application-specific requirements.

Note that purchasing decisions based on just a few randomly picked suppliers and without carefully defined specifications are risky; therefore, we strongly recommend using our data and tool. See also:

• How Responsible Purchase Decisions for Expensive Goods Like Lasers Are Done
• Explanations on this purchasing tool

Go through the process:

1. Understand the technical background

It is important to sufficiently understand the technology before buying.

Use the comprehensive learning resources of RP Photonics:

pulsed lasers pulse generation light pulses lasers Q-switched lasers mode-locked lasers ultrafast lasers gain switching Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifier for Rectangular Nanosecond Pulses

If you need personal help, contact RP Photonics to get technical consultancy.

I feel that I sufficiently understand the technical background.

2. Define your requirements

It is essential to fully understand and clearly define your requirements before you purchase.

We recommend that you develop a list of clear specifications according to your specific needs, against which you can later check the suitability of found product offers:

To help you, we have already listed some aspects we recommend you consider when buying pulsed lasers. Of course, there may be other aspects that are relevant to your specific case.

This list is for your own preparation, and can later (possibly in modified form) be used for quotation requests to suppliers.

I think that I am sufficiently informed about our requirements.

Otherwise, you will need to talk to your technical colleagues.

I consider the above list of specifications to be sufficiently complete, clear and accurate.

If you cannot sufficiently clarify your requirements, you may want to get technical consultancy from RP Photonics.

Insert these criteria when creating inquiry mails to suppliers with the buttons "Get quotation".

You find these buttons in the supplier list below or under "3. Find suitable suppliers".

3. Find suitable suppliers

We suggest three steps:

• Below, you can find our list of suppliers for pulsed lasers. Use the checkboxes to mark possibly suitable suppliers.
• The selected suppliers will appear below this list, along with your list of specifications. You can then indicate which specifications they meet according to your research. (You should finalize your specifications before doing this.)
• Based on the results, you can finally choose a supplier that is hopefully a good enough fit.

Selected suppliers:

(none so far)

Decision

The most suitable supplier you found:

Comments, e.g. reasons for your choice, or things which still need to be checked:

4. Document the decision process

It is essential to document your purchasing process, not only its result (chosen supplier):

• You will find it easier next time.
• If something goes wrong, you can defend your decision by showing that you properly considered all important aspects. Or you see what needs to be done better next time.

Our interactive tool makes it easy: Fill out the form, and in the end print it to a PDF. Note that the document will show all sections (including those not currently shown on the screen), while omitting some irrelevant details such as the page navigation.

Suppliers for Pulsed Lasers

151 suppliers for pulsed lasers are listed in the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide, out of which 24 present their product descriptions and images. Both manufacturers and distributors can be registered.

Suppliers with Advertising Package

presenting their product descriptions

Helping our customers reach their research @ commercial goals for over 45 years

MPB Communications
Head Office
147 Hymus Boulevard
Montreal, Quebec H9R 1E9
Canada

MPBC’s line of pulsed fiber lasers are designed to address a range of market applications including medical and bio-medical research, semiconductor inspection, micro-machining, metrology, and multi-photon microscopy.

Products include:

• Mode-locked ultrafast fiber lasers which operate at 515 nm, 532 nm, and anywhere from 920 nm to  nm. They generate linearly polarized nearly transformed-limited pulses with pulse durations in the femtosecond or picosecond regime. With repetition rates in the range 10–100 MHz, and an average power of greater than 1.5 W, our ultrafast lasers are designed for a wide range of applications.
• Sub-nanosecond pulsed fiber lasers, available from 514 nm to  nm and with user-selectable repetition rates, are based on an all-fiber laser cavity, offering excellent beam quality and wall plug efficiency.

Product-specific web page

30 Years of Laser Excellence

Monocrom
C/ Vilanoveta 6
Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona)
Spain

Monochrom offers different types of pulsed lasers:

• Q-switched diode-pumped lasers such as the LQ-527-12: a frequency-doubled Nd:YLF laser emitting up to 1 mJ at 527 nm
• pulsed high-power diode lasers with longer pulse durations but very high pulse energies, such as the HiEN Puls x-YAG

Product-specific web page

Innovative and Reliable

AdValue Photonics
E. Bilby Rd.
Tucson, AZ
United States

AdValue Photonics offers different kinds of Q-switched nanosecond lasers, all emitting in the 2-μm spectral region ( nm):

• The Q-switched laser module AP-QS1-MOD generates pulses with 20 ns to 200 ns duration, up to 30 kHz repetition rate, up to 10 W average output power and high beam quality. The module also has an output modulation capability.
• The Q-switched laser AP-QS is a compact seed laser delivering 5-μJ pulses with up to 30 kHz repetition rate.
• The Q-switched laser AP-QS1 with a rack housing offers up to 5 W average power and 250 μJ pulse energy.

Besides, AdValue Photonics has picosecond and femtosecond fiber lasers.

For more information, please visit Beamtech.

Product-specific web page

Advanced Tunable Lasers Open the Future of Measurement Technology

Spectra Quest Lab, Inc.
408 Chiba-Univ. Inohana Inovation Plaza
1–8–15 Inohana Chuou-ku Chiba-shi
Chiba, 260–
Japan

Spectra Quest Lab offers ns/ps tunable lasers and light sources in the 900-nm band and 1-μm band.

The tunable laser uses a CW narrow linewidth tunable laser as a seed source, and after nanosecond pulse generation with a pulsed SOA, the ns pulse is further amplified with a fiber amplifier to obtain a Fourier-limited linewidth pulse.

The tunable light source is a system in which broadband ASE light from a pulsed SOA is selected with a spectral width of 0.2 nm by a tunable filter and amplified by a fiber amplifier, making it cost-effective and simple configuration.

Both can output pulse widths of 1–10 ns and support repetition rates from single shot to 100 MHz on pulse on demand. External synchronization is easily achieved with electrical trigger input/output. Optionally, a picosecond pulse output can be obtained by passing a pulse shaper consisting of an LiNbO3 modulator and an electric pulse generator before the fiber amplifier input.

Product-specific web page Bright Solutions SRL
Via Artigiani 27
Cura Carpignano (Pavia)
Italy

Bright Solutions offers various Q-switched lasers:

• Wedge – nanosecond Q-switched lasers for 266, 355, 532, , ,  nm (also multi-wavelength configurations), used e.g. for atmospheric LIDAR, monitoring, glass machining or lithography
• Onda – compact monolithic nanosecond Q-switched lasers for 266, 355, 532 or  nm, used e.g. for lens marking, plastic marking or intravolume glass marking
• Sol – compact Q-switched lasers for 355, 532 or  nm, up to 200 kHz, used e.g. for automotive fabrication, electronic machining, ID card writing and other industrial applications
• Vento – sub-nanosecond MOPA lasers with pulse durations down to 500 ps, up to 200 kHz, up to 100 W average power at  nm or 50 W at 532 nm, e.g. for LIDAR or PCB microprocessing
• Aero – high energy lasers with up to 200 mJ at  nm, 100 mJ at 532 nm, multi-wavelength configurations, custom beam shaping, application e.g. in atmospheric LIDAR, LIBS or nonlinear spectroscopy
• ONE DPSS – miniaturized Q-switched lasers with up to 200 μJ and down to 3 ns, e.g. for atmospheric LIDAR and laser marking on plastics

Product-specific web page Innolume GmbH
Konrad-Adenauer-Allee 11
Dortmund
Germany

Innolume’s pulsed laser diodes provide precision-tailored light sources for time-critical photonic applications. We offer both Fabry–Pérot (FP) and Distributed Feedback (DFB) lasers to meet varying performance needs:

• Our pulsed FP lasers deliver high peak powers up to  mW, making them ideal for fiber laser seeding and high-energy pulse applications.
• Our pulsed DFB lasers produce ultrashort 50-ps pulses using gain switching, with peak powers up to 300 mW and exceptional spectral stability.

You can obtain these diodes available in a variety of fiber-coupled and chip-level packaging formats. They can be customized for specific wavelengths and spectral widths.

Product-specific web page

Fully automated ultrafast tunable laser systems

SI Stuttgart Instruments GmbH
Ernsthaldenstr. 17
Stuttgart
Germany

The Stuttgart Instruments Primus is an ultrafast (fs) mode-locked oscillator, based on the solid-state technology. It provides a high average output power combined with a superior low noise level (shot noise limit above 300 kHz) and an excellent long-term stability.

The solid-state technology with  nm central wavelength enables the excellent long-term stability by providing several watts of output power at 40 MHz pulse repetition rate and 450 fs pulse duration. Its superior low noise level reaches the shot noise limit above 300 kHz. In combination with the stability and output power, it enables ultrasensitive measurements and makes the Primus perfectly suited as pump source for frequency converters like the Stuttgart Instruments Alpha. The entire system is encapsulated in a solid CNC-cut and water-cooled housing, thus reaching excellent robustness against external perturbations.

Product-specific web page LEUKOS
2 rue Edouard Michaud
Beaublanc Bât. 3–4–5
Limoges
France

LEUKOS offers the passively Q-switched laser HLX-I, a compact microchip laser generated sub-nanosecond pulsed at  nm. Different versions are available, with up to 500 MW average output power and 50 μJ pulse energy. It is suitable for micromachining, a seed laser, for LIDAR, 3 D scanning and imaging, biophotonics, supercontinuum generation and in other fields.

See our data sheet.

Product-specific web page Exail (formerly iXblue)
34, Rue de la Croix de Fer
Saint Germain-en-Laye
France

The Exail (formerly iXblue) ModBox-OFE is a complete front end laser system designed to be used as a seed source in high energy density laser facilities. The system is available at  nm,  nm and  nm, it allows to generate custom shaped optical pulses with high stability and high extinction ratio and with durations from 125 ps to 100 ns. The short pulse generation is based on the combination of a high-performance continuous laser source combined with a large bandwidth modulation.

The ModBox-OPG is a family of optical pulse generation units which generate pulses with durations from 30 ps to hundreds of nanoseconds, and with very high extinction ratio. The available optical shapes are Gaussian and square waveform. The ModBox works at any wavelength, and for an optical pulse train repetition which is externally triggered up to gigahertz repetition rates.

The optical spectral broadening ModBox-OSB achieves the broadening of an optical signal by modulating its phase via the mean of a very efficient LiNbO3 phase modulator. A number of side bands are created over a spectral width that can reach several hundreds GHz. The ModBox-OSB contains a single-tone RF generator, white noise sources or PRBS sources. The ModBox-OSB integrates laser chain such as High Energy Lasers (HEL) lasers or Spectral Beam Combining laser architectures (SBC).

Product-specific web page

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Other Suppliers

3 Micron Laser Technology
United States 4in1 Photonics LLC
United States A.R.C. Laser GmbH
Germany Acal BFi
Germany Access Laser Company
United States Advalight
Denmark Advanced Optowave Corporation
United States AKELA Laser Corporation
United States Aktyvus Photonics
Lithuania Allied Scientific Pro
Canada AMPHOS GmbH
Germany Amplitude Laser Group
France Arktis Laser Inc.
Canada Astanza Lasers, Inc.
United States AUREA Technology
France AUXXOS GmbH
Germany AZURE Photonics Co., Ltd.
China Becker & Hickl GmbH
Germany Beijing Rofea Optoelectronics Co., Ltd.
China BKtel photonics
France Bloom Lasers
France Bright Aerospace
Italy Canlas Laser Processing GmbH
Germany Cavitar Ltd
Finland CivilLaser Laser Source Technology Co., Ltd.
China Coherent Corp.
United States Compact Laser Solutions GmbH
Germany Convergent Photonics LLC
United States Crisel Instruments s.r.l.
Italy CryLaS GmbH
Germany Crytur, spol. s r.o.
Czech Republic Dausinger & Giesen GmbH
Germany Delta Photonics
Canada DPSS Lasers Inc.
United States DRS Daylight Solutions Inc.
United States Dyneos AG
Switzerland EdgeWave GmbH
Germany Edinburgh Instruments Ltd.
United Kingdom Egismos Technology Corporation
Taiwan Evolase Oy
Finland Femtum
Canada FiberLAST Inc.
Turkey Frankfurt Laser Company
Germany Glucoloop AG
Switzerland Shenzhen Gongda Laser Co., Ltd.
China HT Laser UG
Germany IBPhotonics Ltd.
Bulgaria IDIL Fibres Optiques
France IL Photonics
Israel Impex High Tech
Germany InnoLas Laser GmbH
Germany Innotech Laser GmbH
Germany Integrated Optics, Ltd.
Lithuania IPG Photonics Corporation
United States JGM Associates, Inc.
United States L3HARRIS
Australia Lahat Technologies Ltd
Israel LAS Photonics
Israel Laser S.O.S. Ltd.
United Kingdom Laserglow Technologies
Canada M6C 1C Lasermate Group, Inc.
United States LASIT spa
Italy Lastek Pty Ltd
Australia Light Age, Inc.
United States LightMachinery
Canada LIOP-TEC GmbH
Germany Litron Lasers Ltd.
United Kingdom LTB Lasertechnik Berlin GmbH
Germany LumiMetric Co., Ltd.
China Lumispot Technology Corp.
China Lumos Laser Ltd.
Turkey Marysol Technologies, Inc.
United States Maxphotonics Co., Ltd.
China Meridian AG
Switzerland Wuxi Milewave Photonics Technology Co., Ltd.
China Modulight, Inc.
Finland MONTFORT Laser GmbH
Austria MWTechnologies, Lda.
Portugal NaKu Technology Co., Ltd
China Nano-Giga
France neoLASE GmbH
Germany NEXLASE GmbH
Germany Nanguang Hi-Tech (Xiamen) Laser Co., Ltd
China Novanta Photonics
United States NP Photonics, Inc.
United States Oculus Optikgeräte GmbH
Germany Optical Pulse Machines
Israel Optitask Ltd.
Israel Opton Laser International
France Optoprim Germany GmbH
Germany OSI Laser Diode, Inc.
United States OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH
Germany OZ Optics
Canada Pantec Biosolutions AG
Liechtenstein PaR Systems (Pty) Ltd
South Africa Photonics Industries International, Inc.
United States Physical Sciences Inc.
United States Pico Light Solution Inc
Canada PolarOnyx
United States Polytec GmbH
Germany Power Technology Inc.
United States Quantum Composers Inc.
United States Roithner LaserTechnik
Austria Sintec Optronics Pte Ltd (HQ)
Singapore Sirah Lasertechnik GmbH
Germany SLF Svenska Laserfabriken AB
Sweden SOL Instruments Ltd.
Belarus Solar Laser Systems
Belarus Soliton Laser- und Messtechnik GmbH
Germany Soluciones y Tecnolgias de Control Embebido SAPI de CV
Mexico Soluciones y Tecnolgias de Control Embebido SAPI de CV
Mexico Sparkle Optics
United States Spectral Energies
United States Spectra-Physics Lasers
United States Spektrum Laser-Entwicklungs- und Vertriebs-GmbH
Germany STANDA Ltd.
Lithuania Te Lintelo Systems BV
The Netherlands Tecnosens S.p.a.
Italy Tianjin Maiman Laser Technology Co., Ltd.
China Topag Lasertechnik GmbH
Germany TRUMPF Laser- und Systemtechnik GmbH
Germany TRUMPF Inc.
United States TSI Incorporated
United States UpTek Solutions Corp.
United States von Gegerfelt Photonics
Germany Xiton Photonics
Germany

Author: Stephen Gwinner, Laser Lab Source | Updated: December 30,

QUICK NAVIGATION:

• What is a pulsed laser diode driver?
• Common applications
• The 5 baseline specifications to help filter your selection choices
• Start with your laser diode package
• What type of laser diode are you pulsing ~ DFB, DBR, or Grating Stabilized?
• What are the most common problems?
• Impedance matching
• Evaluate scope plots before you buy
• How is the pulse generated?
• Can I just use a voltage pulser?
• Who manufactures pulsed drivers for laser diodes?

INTRODUCTION:

Choosing a pulsed laser diode driver for your application can easily turn into a multi-day project. The design and manufacturing of fast pulsing current sources specifically for semiconductor lasers is still a highly fragmented market controlled by a handful of specialty companies. Not only is it difficult to find the companies who are making these drivers, it’s often even more difficult to get timely information from them which will help you triangulate which product best fits your needs. This article will hopefully provide you with a basic understanding of the most important factors to consider when making your choice and a list of the top manufacturers of pulsers. It will also provide an overview of which specifications are most important to check when you purchase a driver. Finally, it covers some of the basic design pricinples to hopefully help you do a better job selecting the best product for your specific application.

WHAT IS A PULSED LASER DIODE DRIVER?

To understand the basic building blocks of a semiconductor laser driver, please refer to our article on continuous wave drivers ». A pulsed laser diode driver is a voltage controlled constant current source which is designed to deliver a repeatable set of current pulses at a set output level over user defined time intervals. Their output to the laser is defined in units of amplitude and time. The type of driver we are discussing in this article delivers time units in the 100's of picoseconds, nanosecond and microsecond pulse width range, and frequencies in the range of single shot to 500 MHz.

The output current amplitude and the pulsing time parameters typically are the only parameters that you can set and adjust. You will typically not see an adjustment for output voltage. But manufacturers will specify the voltage, usually referred to on data sheets as the compliance voltage. This is the available range of output voltage of a constant current source to the load. It is the total amount of voltage a current source will reach as it attempts to produce the desired current. The job of a constant current source is to deliver a precisely set current amount, so as it attempts to produce the desired current it will source voltage following Ohm’s law. You can read more about designing pulsed laser drivers in the Analog Modules tech-notes library ».

COMMON APPLICATIONS:

Applications that require drivers in the 100's of picosecond through single digit microsecond pulse width range include fiber laser seeding, sensing, range finding, LiDAR and emerging medical applications such as tomography as described in this article on pulsed laser diode ».

THE 5 MOST IMPORTANT SPECIFICATIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A PULSED LASER DIODE DRIVER:

When you are looking at the data sheet, and you immediately skip from the product photo to the table of spec's as we all do, you are looking for a few key spec's to help you quickly filter to the best product fit. In addition to your laser package style, which is discussed below, these five clearly defined specifications will help you filter your selections quickly:

» Current Amplitude Range

» Pulse Width Range (picoseconds, nanoseconds or microseconds)

» Frequency Range (usually Single Shot to X MHz)

» Duty Cycle Limit (ie limited to 50% duty cycle)

» Compliance Voltage Range (usually in the 3V~10V range)

The current amplitude is straight forward. So the three time parameters are the variables you may want to check first. Here is quick review of the time paramaters frequency, duty cycle and pulse width. This review is very basic, but helpful if you need a refresher:

START WITH YOUR LASER DIODE'S PACKAGE STYLE AS YOUR FIRST AND PRIMARY SELECTION FILTER:

Even though it’s fairly intuitive, you should consider starting with your laser diode package style and working backwards to the pulser, using the package style as your first selection filter when you are trying to find the best fit driver. Commercially available pulser’s are often made for a specific laser package style. This means that they will usually have interface mounting pads or pins which are optimized for a butterfly package or a TO-Can package. And some have high power bracket connector outputs for high power fiber coupled laser modules (10’s or 100’s of Watts). As we will discuss below, because impedance matching is such a difficult challenge in fast pulsing applications, the interface from the pulser to the laser is a major selection variable. If the manufacturer does not have photos showing the connection to the package style you will work with, I recommend you move on and find a manufacturer that has photos.

SPECTRAL EMISSION CONSIDERATONS WHEN PULSING A DFB, DBR OR FGB STABILIZED LASER DIODE:

When choosing a pulser, it is important to keep in mind the response time of the type of laser diode you intend to pulse. For example, with fiber Bragg grating stabilized lasers (FBG), there is an inherint time period (lag) required for the laser to lock onto its Bragg locking element. This locking is almost immediate for a DFB or DBR, but it often requires more than 100 nanoseconds for an FBG based laser. When pulsing a Grating stabilized laser diode, the first nanosecond produces a broad emission spectrum as if there were no Bragg grating present. Some suppliers such as Lumics offer an intermediate solution that offers the Bragg closer to the chip which reduces this locking time lag to a few nanoseconds.

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED WHEN PULSING A LASER DIODE?

The most common problem encountered when pulsing a laser at high repetition rates is pulse degradation, ie overshoot and ringing, caused by improper impedance matching. Current sources inherently have a high output impedance and laser diodes have very low impedance. The most important requirement of proper impedance matching is matching the impedance of the load to the impedance of the transmission line. When the impedance levels are not matched, inductance theory quickly comes in to play, and not in a helpful way. The inductance of laser diodes ranges from a few nanohenries to tens of nanohenries. As we all remember, v is the voltage in volts,