Saint Charles, Mo. – May 5, 2015 –Cutting Edge Optronics, a Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) company, was honored with the CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Award in the Lasers and Sources category for their Gigashot(TM) High Energy Diode Pumped Solid State laser system. The system is the first Joule class, all diode-pumped, commercially available laser, ideally suited for use in scientific, industrial and medical applications.
10 Joule Diode-Pumped Laser Video
The 10 Joule GIGASHOT-HE™ laser system consists of an injection-seeded oscillator followed by an amplifier chain containing six PowerPULSE™ laser amplifiers. The amplifiers utilize rod sizes ranging from 3mm to 25mm. Each PowerPULSE™ laser amplifier is pulse-pumped by laser diode arrays manufactured on-site at CEO’s facility in St. Charles, Missouri.
CEO Installs 10 Joule Laser at LSP Technologies
Cutting Edge Optronics (CEO) successfully installed a new 10 Joule Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) GIGASHOT-HE™ Laser System at the LSP Technologies facility in Dublin, Ohio. This laser will be incorporated into LSP Technologies’ Procudo™ 200 Laser Peening System, which is designed for rapid integration into customer facilities with the utmost focus placed on throughput, reliability, and usability.
Lasers and Sources Innovation Award Video
The CLEO 2015 co-sponsors (APS, IEEE Photonics Society, The Optical Society) and Laser Focus World announced Northrop Grumman – Cutting Edge Optronics (CEO) the winner for the 2015 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Award in the Lasers and Sources Category.
Vibe Qualified Injection Seeded UV Pulsed Laser
Cutting Edge Optronics has developed a novel method for injection seeding pulsed Nd:YAG lasers. This method provides narrow linewidth operation while being highly resistant to seeding disruptions due to environmental conditions such as vibration commonly found on multi-engine turbo-prop aircraft. CEO’s APL-Series DPSS laser system’s performance has been verified in vibration conditions representative of a C-130. The laser system operates at 30 Hz and can be configured for 1064 nm, 532 nm or 355 nm output.
High Energy DPSS Laser Design Video
Utilizing our PowerPULSE™ laser amplifier technology, we’ve developed a set of design standards for high energy DPSS laser systems. Starting with the customer’s desired final beam characteristics and a given set of pumping conditions, we model the entire laser system, beginning with the final amplifier stage. We computationally work our way backwards through each amplifier stage until an energy level suitable for a single mode oscillator is achieved. We then choose a seed laser appropriate for the entire laser system.
CEO Laser Installs Joule Class Laser at LLNL
Cutting Edge Optronics (CEO) today announced the successful installation and commissioning of their new Joule class Gigashot-HE™ Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) Laser System at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The laser will be used as a key component of LLNL’s High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS). The HAPLS laser system is destined for the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) Beamlines high-intensity laser science facility currently under construction in the Czech Republic. The injection seeded, diode pumped Gigashot-HE laser outputs 2 J of 532 nm energy in each sub-10 ns pulse at 10 Hz with a near field flat top beam profile, making it an ideal pump source for one of HAPLS high energy Ti:Sapphire amplifier stages.
Northrop Grumman Begins Production of Additional Airborne Laser Mine Detection Systems
Cutting Edge Optronics has received a contract from the U.S. Navy for the continued production of the AN/AES-1Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS). The contract includes the production of five ALMDS pod subsystems, support equipment, spares, and technical support.
The ALMDS is mounted on an MH-60S helicopter. Flying over sea lanes, it finds and geolocates mine-like objects with its pulsed laser light and streak tube receivers by imaging, in 3-D, day or night, the near-surface of the ocean.
6 Joule Nd:YLF Laser Amplifier
Cutting Edge Optronics (CEO Laser) recently manufactured the largest, commercially available, diode pumped Nd:YLF laser amplifier in the world. This PowerPULSE series laser amplifier pumps a one inch Nd:YLF laser rod with more than 150 QCW laser diode bars, and produces more than 5 Joules of gain switched energy and over 6 Joules of stored energy.
