Tag: laser beam

Laser Systems developed for cancer cell detection

Nowadays researchers develop a totally new type of laser system that allows the detection and killing of tumor cells from the outside of the shin. Thus, preventing cancer cells from spreading to other parts of the body through the blood. Despite the fact that this laser device is still far from becoming a commercial diagnostic tool, the laser systems demonstrate sensitivity of up to 1,000 times higher than traditional techniques used to find tumor cells in the blood.

Importance of the novel System development

It should be noted that generally blood samples are taken to test cancer spread. However, quite often these tests cannot detect tumor cells even if they are present in a single sample, particularly, in the early form of cancer. That is why the detection of the cell by a laser system plays a crucial role. It is often too late to make effective treatment of patients since cell detection was late.

The novel laser technology is a non-invasive method of cancer cell detection that enables the examination of larger quantities of blood with a greater level of sensitivity. Firstly, such a laser system was tested in the lab, then on animals, and recently brought to clinical trials in humans.

The principle of the laser technology operation is based on the use of light pulses produced by a laser beam on the outside of the skin to heat up cells in the blood. Herewith, the laser beam affects only melanoma cells — not healthy ones — because of a dark pigment (melanin) absorbing the light located in these cells. Also, the laser system uses an ultrasound technique for the detection of the teensy, tiny waves emitted by this heating effect.

Results of the newly developed Laser Systems

Thus, 28 light-skinned patients who had melanoma and 19 healthy volunteers who didn’t have melanoma tested the laser system technology. To be precise, doctors shone the laser beam onto the patients’ hands and detected that within 10 seconds to 60 minutes, the laser system could find cancer cells in 27 out of 28 cases.

The laser device didn’t demonstrate any false positives on the healthy patients, and the laser did not provoke safety concerns or side effects. Moreover, laser technology does not harm the skin where cells produce melanin naturally. The main reason for it depends on the laser beam light that affects a relatively large area on the skin, so it is not focused enough on the skin to damage these cells.

An additional benefit of the developed laser system includes fewer circulating tumor cells after the treatment, in spite of the fact that the researchers’ purpose was diagnosing rather than treating cancer, nevertheless, the laser beam seemed able to kill the cancer cells even at the low energy. The future aim of laser technology research is its development to identify circulating tumor cells released by cancers other than melanoma as well as in people with darker skin.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its own technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

Fiber laser systems promote product technologies

Such advantages of fiber lasers as throughput, reliability, and low operational cost make laser systems a powerhouse in the manufacturing industries where it is necessary to cut, weld, mark, and micromachine materials. Herewith, fiber laser systems differ from traditional industrial lasers by their unique features. For example, high-power single-mode laser systems and widely flexible pulsed fiber lasers allow solving various process challenges by electronic control of operating parameters.

The principle of fiber laser operation is based on converting relatively low-brightness pump light emitted by laser diodes into high-brightness output, where the output laser beam quality is often the only spatial mode enabled by the physics of the fiber laser system design. The uniqueness of fiber lasers among other types of lasers includes such features as a sealed optical cavity and a single-mode, guided-wave medium.

It should be noted that a sealed optical path in modern fiber laser systems provides immunity to environmental contamination and enables not to carry out any adjustment. High-power laser system’s components include single-mode laser modules into high-brightness delivery fiber in fused fiber combiners. Thus, fiber lasers are considered to be a highly reliable laser technology that offers minimal variation over time and temperature.

The thing is that the use of sealed pump diodes and non-darkening fiber optic technology creates a laser system that is possible to be used continuously in production for years without any adjustment or degradation. For example, numerous industrial manufacturers use fiber lasers or disk lasers for metal cutting and welding because of the practically equal power, laser beam quality, wavelength, reliability, and beam delivery options.

The most common applications of fiber laser systems include high-speed remote welding because there is no need for the contact process during laser system welding, that is why the laser technology includes no tool wear. Additionally, fiber lasers allow the joining of various materials due to the brightness and dynamic capabilities of laser systems that were considered to be unweldable before.

Also, now it is possible to employ the same fiber laser in the same optical configuration for a different range of materials processing applications by simply controlling both the laser beam pulse parameters and the scanhead toolpath. One more laser application is cleaning and drilling that were a real challenge for industrial laser systems because they had to deal with a significant variation of target materials.

Therefore, such qualities of modern fiber lasers as the brightness, stability, and flexibility extend the present material processing applications and create new ones. Fiber laser technology is perfect for manufacturing with identical laser beam properties from unit to unit, with no field adjustment or maintenance.

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Laser Systems emit terahertz radiation for the U.S. army

A team of researchers from Boston has developed a new terahertz radiation source with coveted frequency adjustment capability based on quantum cascade laser systems (QCL). Such a laser system has a compact size and it allows the development of futuristic communications, security, biomedical, and astronomical imaging systems.

It should be noted that terahertz electromagnetic frequencies emitted by fiber lasers have been widespread for their range of applications because these laser systems offer such advantages as high bandwidth, high resolution, long-range sensing, and the ability to visualize objects through materials. Nevertheless, the costliness, bulk, inefficiencies, and lack of tunability of traditional terahertz laser beam sources have limited growing markets.
Thus, this new combined terahertz laser beam emitter promotes future technologies from T-ray imaging in airports and space observatories to ultrahigh-capacity wireless connections. To be more precise, current fiber laser systems are considered to have limited tunability (less than 15 to 20% of the main frequency), that is why terahertz radiation is rarely used.

The researchers confirm that the new laser system helps open up this spectral region resulting in a revolutionary impact. The laser technology is based on a compact tunable semiconductor laser system, the quantum cascade laser (QCL) that is frequently used for chemical sensing and trace gas analysis. The thing is that the QCL laser system emits mid-infrared light, herewith, in this spectral region, most gases (low concentrations of molecules) can be determined by their specific absorption fingerprints.

According to researchers, “Terahertz waves could be emitted with high efficiency from gas molecules held within cavities much smaller than those currently used on the optically pumped far-infrared (OPFIR) laser system — one of the earliest sources of terahertz radiation”.

Nevertheless, the OPFIR laser systems are similar to all traditional terahertz laser beam sources, that is why they are regarded as inefficient with limited tunability. The change of the OPFIR laser on the quantum cascade laser system significantly increases the terahertz tuning range, therefore, the developed laser module has wider tunability now.

This laser system has been already tested and demonstrates the opportunity to tune the terahertz output to emit 29 direct laser beam transitions between 0.251 and 0.955 THz. The laser technology is universal, and it can be used to detect different gases. It is planned to use the developed laser system to observe skyward and determine unknown spectral features in the terahertz region.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

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Fiber Lasers as a tool for the treatment of kidney stones

The treatment of kidney stones is regarded as a painful process, however, specialists from the U.S. have developed a laser technology to make the therapy easier for patients in a way never done before. According to specialists, a two-month test makes the medical center the first in North America to apply pulsed fiber lasers to take away kidney stones.

The development of this laser technology takes a couple of years on project. That is why the specialists try to make Ohio State the first to employ it, as it already had some experience. To be more precise, specialists started developing the opportunity of applying this type of fiber laser system for urology in early 2015. By mid-2017, certain benefits of the new laser technology were over to the conventional state of the art.

The fiber laser leads to kidney stones’ breakage into tiny pieces. Herewith, such a laser system is considered to be more consistent compared with traditional laser technology. The operating principle is based on laser beam energy that breaks up the stones: “Once we get to the stone, the laser beam energy is delivered through an optical fiber that’s brought into contact with the stone. Once you’re touching the stone, activate the fiber laser system. And it delivers pulses of energy to the stone that breaks it up.”

The main benefit of such fiber laser treatment is a short time of breakage resulting in less required time under anesthetic and a faster recovery for patients. The thing is that the previous laser systems applied for kidney stone procedures are dated. They have been used for about 20 years and had numerous limitations. While modern pulsed fiber lasers are one of the biggest breakthroughs in urology. The developed fiber laser meets the scientist’s expectations. It allows breaking up really big stones that were difficult to treat with the older laser system.

Additionally, there is no often a need for stents because the new fiber laser system enables to efficiently break the stones into tiny parts and dust. It should be noted that a stent is a temporary tube between the kidney and the bladder that helps the kidney drain. Herewith, it provides discomfort to patients and requires an additional procedure of its removal.

Also, the pulsed fiber laser offers other advantages for medical staff, for instance, it is smaller and more portable than the previous model that required a special outlet in operating rooms. The main goal of fiber laser development is to help physicians get better clinical outcomes for patients. Thus, the laser system is planned to be used in areas of the hospital where traditionally haven’t been used before.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

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Temperature control is crucial for the fiber lasers industry

Thermal stability plays a crucial role in industrial laser systems. Thus, the developers and manufacturers of fiber lasers have to design them to provide accurate heat regulation. Because inappropriate temperature control can lead to systemic or catastrophic consequences. The thing is that fluctuating temperatures significantly influence the capabilities of fiber laser systems and their lifespan, as well as production outcomes and customer satisfaction.

The risk of premature failures on laser systems increases, to be more precise, in the case of low-temperature control (when electronics are not being cooled properly). Numerous fiber lasers have water-cooled systems (the chiller), and the laser stops operating when any of those components go down. New chiller technologies have been developed to produce a more reliable chiller that fiber laser manufacturers can confidently install into all their systems.

The industry of chilling systems is considered to develop with the demands of the fiber laser industry. “Having a chiller that has the right heat removal, along with excellent stability and a level of quality and maintenance-free operation, is absolutely essential in keeping that fiber laser system up and running, so the customer’s making parts.” And power stability of laser systems is highly important for their reliable operation.

An ineffective chiller is going to have a great impact on a fiber laser with power stability. Additionally, it can influence the laser beam profile that can transform or warp things. In the case of water temperature increase, metal components of laser systems can be moving slightly more than it is required, and it can lead to the motion of the laser beam resulting in higher pointing instability.

The benefits of modern chilling systems for fiber laser systems include:

high quality;
less downtime;
ease of use.

Therefore, such innovations are required and vital in the evolution of the fiber laser industry. Some customers would not like to apply laser systems because of their maintenance that is regarded as the number one reason for failure. Nevertheless, now the problem is solved by a self-changing filter, due to which it is changed for up to two years.

New fiber laser technologies allow the development of a user-friendly recirculating chiller for various applications. Today it is possible to calculate the ideal pump, fluid, and power capacity for the chiller in fiber laser systems. Besides, the developers can produce a chiller considering your budget, herein, it will offer the highest value for customers.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

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Fiber lasers fight greenhouse gases

A team of researchers from Switzerland has developed a detecting system consisted of conventional fiber lasers and a photonic chip that allows tracking greenhouse and other gases by the application of a mid-infrared light source. The team uses a commercially affordable fiber laser system and combined it with a waveguide chip. That helps surely to emit laser beam lightwaves in the MIR spectrum.

According to the researchers, the developed laser system based on a new MIR laser beam light source enables them to determine greenhouse, other gases, and, moreover, molecules in a person’s breath. The thing is that the used fiber laser produces light in a specific wavelength range.

The operating principle of the fiber laser system is based on the laser beam that “is directed through a waveguide measuring 1 μm (0.001 mm) across and one-half mm in length. The waveguide can alter the frequency of the light as it passes through.” Herewith, several key aspects of the laser system’s design were improved. Among them are the waveguide geometry and material and the wavelength of the original laser beam source.

Thus, the researchers obtain a fiber laser system that is regarded as simple, yet efficient and reliable. Also, it becomes possible to adjust the wavelength of the laser beam light by tuning the geometry of the waveguide. The laser system is considered to be a turnkey, highly efficient, compact MIR laser beam source. It provides power levels sufficient for spectroscopy applications.

The system has been already tested on the detection of acetylene, a colorless and highly flammable gas, by absorption spectroscopy. The thing is that the fiber laser emits laser beam light in the MIR spectrum, saving 30% of the original signal strength. For instance, the waveguides pumped with a 2-μm fs fiber laser succeded a spectroscopic spectral region in the 3- to the 4-μm range, with up to 35% power conversion and mW-level output powers.

The researchers confirm that the developed fiber laser system sets a new benchmark for efficiency. Moreover, it is the first fully-integrated spectroscopic laser beam source resulting in no need for the laborious process of accurately aligning all the components in a standard laser system.

Finally, it was challenging to transport previous IR fiber laser systems for application since they include complex, damage-prone hardware. Modern laser systems can promote the development of additional miniaturized MIR technologies. It has a wavelength range that scientists rarely get to work with. Additionally, now the researchers have the opportunity to see on-chip detectors that is possible to be easily carried out into the field.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

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Fiber Lasers and technologies for military use

Laser beam weapons have long ceased to be an element of sci-fi culture, and every year fiber technology more and more firmly takes its place in military application. Of course, high-power laser systems that can cut starships and buildings into parts have not yet been invented, but many modern fiber lasers still deserve special attention. We will talk about them today.

1. Lockheed Martin company is a manufacturer of a combat laser module whose laser beam power can be increased by simply adding new emitters. In April 2014, the company produced and tested a 60-kilowatt fiber laser for military purposes. Herewith, its installation in the future will be part of the combat HEL MD.

2. The American company Boeing produces not only aircraft but also laser beam weapons for detecting missiles. The laser system installed on the Boeing YAL-1 aircraft is considered to be a chemical laser that is capable of destroying missiles and mortar shells at a distance of up to 1.5 km, even in challenging weather conditions.

3. Fiber laser Design Bureau of Precision Engineering named. Nudelman is a weapon designed to deactivate optical devices and manpower of the enemy. The laser system operates as a scanner: the laser beams emitted in a spectrum invisible to the human eye scan a potentially dangerous area. As soon as an enemy optical device enters the field of view of a fiber laser system, it is hit by a laser. It should be noted that such a system can strike not only the optics themselves but often the eyes of the observer.

4. Another creation of Boeing is designed to destroy drones, which have become increasingly popular over the past couple of years. A compact laser module offers the ability to make damage on individual parts of an unmanned module (which can be useful if the enemy device does not need to be destroyed but captured), although it can only be installed on fixed surfaces.

5. The Israeli laser system made by Advanced Defense Systems was created with the aim of hitting artillery shells in flight. It is capable of destroying short-range missiles, mortar mines, and shells using a laser beam. This fiber laser can be used against ammunition at a distance of up to 7 kilometers.

Devices emitting laser beams are used mainly against high-speed shells or optical systems of the enemy. Thus, a laser system is one of the most reliable ways to bring down an enemy rocket or mine while still approaching, which allows negating its damaging effects. However, the use of laser systems as a mass attack weapon is just around the corner – few devices can be compared in strength to powerful emitters, and as soon as humanity can solve the problem of a reliable source of energy that will feed the machines in the field, a new era of military technology will begin.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

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Fiber lasers have a fully tunable beam

The newly developed high-powered fiber laser provides real-time tuning of the laser beam characteristics directly from the output optical fiber using a fiber optic system. Laser systems have become indispensable tools for material processing, production, detection, protection, and scientific applications.

This success is based on improved laser performance in several areas, including average and peak power, wavelength range, timeline flexibility (pulse duration and frequency, complex signals), efficiency, power stability, long-term reliability, maintenance, and operational requirements costs.

High-powered fiber lasers were especially important for implementing some of these achievements and currently dominate in many areas of industrial production and microprocessing. In addition to the efficiency and reliability inherent in fiber lasers, fiber laser systems generally provide fiber delivery to the processing head, minimizing the load on the fiber optics in free space in the laser and the machine.

The opportunity to tune a laser beam is important, for example, when cutting metal (the largest industrial application), so a low-power beam with relatively high radiation quality provides the highest speed for thin material, but the maximum thickness is limited by the resulting narrow cut, which prevents melt removal.

A more powerful and more divergent laser beam (lower beam quality) allows cutting a thicker sheet with a corresponding reduction in speed compared to a thin sheet. During welding with high beam quality laser, welds with a “deep penetration channel” are formed, while larger spots with lower laser beam quality create shallow welds in the heat conduction mode, aesthetic welds on thin parts.

Besides, the specific shape of the beam affects the heat transfer and temperature gradients in the workpiece. Unlike a Gaussian beam, a flat-topped laser beam can prevent over or under processing by providing uniform radiation, and ring beams are known to improve processing quality in some applications.

Most laser systems provide the fixed characteristics of the beam. The laser beam can be converted to a different format using refractive or diffractive fiber optic systems. Fiber laser systems with a fixed beam can operate only in a limited range of processes or materials and thus, suffer from reduced productivity or limits.

Customizable laser beam characteristics would be highly desirable to ensure process optimization and tool versatility. Various approaches have been developed that provide a certain level of beam tuning, including zoom lenses, switchable diffractive optical elements, deformable mirrors, laser beam combiners, and (for fiber laser systems with a fiber radiation transport system) optical fiber connectors and switches with a motorized optics.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

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Extreme sound features of fiber laser systems

Diamond is regarded as a predominantly interesting material for this type of laser system for several main reasons. The thing is that it offers high thermal conductivity that promotes the development of compact fiber laser systems that have such features as high stability and high power. Herewith, such fiber laser has also a much higher level of sound speed compared to other materials. Therefore, new laser systems enable directly synthesize frequencies in the hard-to-reach millimeter-wave band.

A team of researchers demonstrates that the laser beam light-sound interaction is predominantly strong in diamonds, also they develop the first bench-top Brillouin laser system that applies diamonds. It should be noted that the result is awesome, the thing is that the new fiber laser offers a highly practical technique with a greatly increased range of performance. Compared to previous versions, the laser system with a diamond can operate without having to limit the optical or sound waves in a waveguide to increase the interaction.

To be more precise, it is easier to scale such fiber laser systems in size, they have much greater flexibility for monitoring the laser beam features as well as increasing power. Diamond opens new possibilities to use the unique features of Brillouin laser systems. Additionally, the fiber lasers result in numerous properties containing laser beam generation with ultra-pure and stable output frequency, the creation of new frequencies, and potentially, laser systems with exceptionally high efficiency.

The researchers confirm that the developed laser technology offers a new way to high-powered fiber lasers that are significantly efficient and have unique frequency features, for instance, low-phase noise and narrow linewidth. Such laser beam features play a crucial role in applications that require the highest standards of noise-free frequency properties, for example, ultra-sensitive detection of gravitational waves or manipulating large arrays of qubits in quantum computers.

Moreover, the diamond in laser systems allows synthesizing very clear frequencies beyond the microwave band. Thus, “as a consequence of the very high speed of sound in diamond—a dashing 18 km/s—the frequency spacing between the input pump laser beam and the laser line is many times higher than in other materials.” It is possible to produce frequencies in the millimeter-wave band (30-300 GHz) employing a technique called photo-mixing.

Finally, the fiber laser technology quantifies the strength of the light-sound interaction in diamond, a crucial parameter for predicting future design and performance resulting in the creation of a practical tool with over 10 W of laser beam power. Also, it is planned to expand the laser system abilities by offering fiber lasers with higher levels of frequency clarity and laser beam power required to maintain future progress in quantum science, wireless communications, and sensing.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

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Fiber lasers provide communication of small satellites

The fact is numerous difficulties have to be overcome in linking small satellites via fiber lasers, however, progress is remarkable. The idea of laser system communication is not new and dates back to the birth of fiber lasers. Nevertheless, the first inter-satellite link provided by the fiber laser system has been recently demonstrated between two low-Earth-orbit satellites.

It should be noted that the laser system requires less than 25 seconds on average to lock onto each other and begins transmission in both directions at 5.6 Gbit/s. The fiber technology has been tested: “the two spacecraft were in a line of sight from each other, an average of about 20 minutes during which the laser beam link between them turned about 80°.”

Herewith, NASA demonstrated the first fiber laser connection in deep space when its laser system device provided data transmission from the Moon at 622 Mbit/s. The laser technology offers a big improvement over data rates real with radio waves. The first commercial laser system inter-satellite link was performed in 2016 resulting in the transmission of high-priority image data collected by four satellites in low-Earth orbit at rates of 1.8 Gbit/s.

To be more precise, the high-speed fiber laser system in the low satellite allows tracking the geosynchronous satellite, that is why it can transmit images quickly, without the necessity to wait to pass over a ground station. Also, its high-speed fiber laser connection enables transmitting images to cloud servers on the ground. Herewith, a totally new vision has appeared for laser system link in space: applying fiber laser-connected satellites in low-Earth orbit to transmit broadband Internet and other services to places beyond the reach of fiber optic cables.

Hundreds or thousands of small satellites are orbited 300 and 2000 km above the ground, while at least one satellite should be always in the sky above any point being served. Moreover, these satellites would orbit around the Earth in several rings, located at various altitudes and positions to get rid of collisions. Thus, satellites would be located around each ring so fiber laser system connections would always have access to one or two adjacent satellites.

Finally, links provided by fiber lasers have crucial benefits over radio frequencies for inter-satellite links above the atmosphere, for instance, higher transmission bandwidth, smaller receivers, and tighter laser beams to enhance security. The main difficulty in the optical fiber band remains and includes the requirement to maintain fiber laser links between adjacent satellites as the whole constellation moves through space and the nearest neighbors of each satellite keep changing.

Optromix is a fast-growing fiber laser manufacturer and a vendor of optical fiber sensors and optical monitoring systems. The company offers fast turnkey solutions and creates sophisticated fiber laser systems for special purposes. Optromix uses only its technologies and develops a broad variety of fiber lasers. If you have any questions or would like to buy a laser system, please contact us at info@optromix.com

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