Photonics West

[planters]

There is too much to cover to review all I saw there. I was impressed with the willingness of many of the exhibitors to reach out to my sons and their teenage friends and summarize/teach the fundamentals underlying the products their companies produced. Zygo was terrific and Bill Benner looks sharp in a suit. I would highly recommend it to anyone who can find the time to visit the exposition next year. It's free!
I have another prediction. The diodes will continue to increase in power, but in 5 years fiber based lasers for display and projection will become a significant source.

[dsli_jon]

...in 5 years fiber based lasers for display...will become a significant source.

..I'd concur.. They are avail in an even wider-range of 'lines' than OPSL, now, and at respectable-powers for even medium size sho-werk (..especially if 7-8 multi-watt modules were combo'd in a pj..)



..the only reason for not using them now is co$t.. they're appreciably-more per watt than OPSL, but... offer some really dang-sexy lines..

.02
j

[Stiffler]

What is the laser light source in these fiber lasers you speak of?

[planters]

That is a good question. I am no expert, but I believe there are several mechanisms. Some fibers are doped with Pr will lase at 490, 520 and 635nm. Then aside from 1064/532 there is raman down shifting within a pigtailed length of the fiber that can bring the fundamental wavelength down to 1179nm and this will double to 589nm.

Very exciting is super-continuum generation (the advantage of listening in while the manufacturer explains this to your sons). High frequency, pico-second, pulses from a fiber laser are sent through a second, photonic-crystal fiber that uses a structured meta material to greatly enhance the nonlinear property of the fiber. This nonlinear property stretches out the narrow band pulse to broader than the entire visible spectrum. This output can be harvested and mixed and...

These fiber lasers are pumped by IR diodes that launch into a fiber pigtail which is either spliced to the end of the gain fiber or mounted adjacent to the gain fiber and pumps into the gain fiber cladding and the light is then slowly absorbed into the gain fiber as as it passes down the cladding.

[masterpj]

If I lived in america then I would have gone.
Did you visit the mirrorcle technologies booth?
The graphics playing on the MEMS scanner there were made by me.

I have been assisting with some MEMS developments from a software perspective.

regarding damage threshold of the scanners (this answer will be given soon)

Edit: I'm back with the answer of a PL members question on facebook.
The MEMS scanner is confirmed to support over 4W of CW laser light and it will go higher when pulsed.
Dummy units (non working) are offered for the ones sceptical if they will damage the mems mirror or not.

[planters]

Sadly, I did not. There were so many booths to visit that I simply overlooked them. I did not know about this company and the graphic is not like some of your other stuff. Funny thing is I had mentioned some time back to Bill and much more recently to Tom that they might look at MEMS technology and clearly someone has. I suspect that if these are limited to dual pole tip/tilt that these kind of devices will not be able to achieve competitive accelerations with the galvo scanners, but if the field were shaped and the mirror were balanced then I suspect that there might be some regimes where this could get more interesting. I'm going to look into this a little more. What else do you know (their web site is a little weak)?

[masterpj]

I have documents I got. Ill hit you up by PM when I get home. Been working half a year now with them or so. I also mentioned this company to Justin but gladly they were already in touch.

The mems scanners with dev board work with a dac. They can compete with scanners of 30kpps barely because of the biggest size mirror needed to support the beam. They do pan tilt and up and down.

I have the amount of speed losses per diameter and it halves a lot with each bigger size.

With better diode specs a small mirror will be feasable, it's that moment a MEMS scanner becomes an acceptible replacement and trust me on this one: this will happen. The need to make smaller diameter beams for video projection systems is in demand I'm sure.

Sorry for any errors in this message. On my iphone.

[dsli_jon]

re: Fiber-lasers: http://www.rp-photonics.com/fiber_lasers.html

..Also, yes, super-tiny, yet high-power / quality sources (ie: the beautiful / amazing-lil' Greens that are in the 'Show WX Pico projectors, but like, 'scaled-up' to W-powers..) + MEMS will be the 'next generation' projector.. 'Laser / Video Projectors', that can both do raster and vector from the same box (..w/O being the 1/2 size of a Box-truck / costing $400K, etc, like the 'first-gen' ones, ie: Schneider, Linden, http://www.laservideo.com/images/profx1.jpg / http://www.laservideo.com/profxand.htm etc.. ) and *that* will-make for some badass-fx for shows / concerts.. Imagine laser-video mapping - and vector-tracing, over top / aerials/beams out into the audience.. from the same-pj..

..like PJ-says.. ya, the day is comin'..
j

[masterpj]

PM send. Enjoy the read through planters, includes pinout and more.
About scanspeed and diameter: it's not in those documents that has been done in an email conversation which I will dig later and PM you. Please do not throw them online there are reasons why they aren't straight up for download

[dsli_jon]

Cha-ching!.. http://www.mirrorcletech.com/index.html / http://www.mirrorcletech.com/images/...rge/trans3.jpg ..all I can say is.. Wow... 'Game Changer'.. if not 'right now'.. sooner rather than never.

..and http://www.mirrorcletech.com/images/...rge/jumbo5.jpg ..*3.6 mm mirs??* Crazy...

..So.. Who's gonna be the first to get / post Dev Kit results? ...I vote Sir Planters..

Staying-tuned..
j