Osram Opto Semiconductors Announces World's First Semiconductor Laser With 8-Watt Optical Power Output.Business Editors/High Tech Writers SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 2003 Osram Opto Semiconductors, a global leader of solid-state lighting Solid state lighting (SSL) refers to a type of lighting that utilizes light-emitting diodes (LEDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), or polymer light-emitting diodes (PLED) as sources of illumination rather than electrical filaments or gas. devices today announced the first Optical Pumped Semiconductor (OPS Ops (ŏps), in Roman religion, goddess of harvests. She was the wife of Saturn, by whom she bore Jupiter and Juno. At her festivals, the Opiconsivia and the Opalia, held in August and December, respectively, she was worshiped as a goddess of sowing ) disk laser prototype. The company's achievement includes reaching a light-efficiency milestone: for the first time, developers achieved an 8 Watt (W) optical output power with an optical pumping Optical pumping The process of causing strong deviations from thermal equilibrium populations of selected quantized states of different energy in atomic or molecular systems by the use of optical radiation (that is, light of wavelengths in or near the visible power of 19 W at a wavelength of 980 nanometers (nm). This clearly exceeds previously documented power and efficiency maximum values, enabling for the first time laser projection for wide consumer applications such as laser televisions. This achievement further underscores Osram's commitment to bringing its customers ongoing, high-quality customized solutions. Compact, powerful and cost-effective laser light sources in the colors red, green and blue are absolutely essential if the dream of laser television (as well as numerous other applications) for the general consumer is to become reality. As part of the miniaturized radiation sources (MISTRAL) research project, Osram Opto Semiconductors is developing semiconductor lasers with high optical output power, good beam quality and long lifetimes. The project has been running since June 2000 and is partly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. After evaluating two laser concepts, the short-pulse MOPA MOPA Master Oscillator Power Amplifier MOPA Mobile Office Promotion Association MoPA Ministry of Public Affairs (Singapore) concept and the OPS disk laser concept, the disk laser concept emerged as the clear favorite. Depending on the material system, OPS disk lasers can not only emit in the infrared range at wavelengths between around 900 and 1300 nm, but they can also be operated as lasers in the red wavelength range. This means that OPS semiconductor lasers have the potential to overcome the limitations of high-power semiconductor lasers, therefore superseding superseding taking over a case of a patient under treatment by another veterinarian. In general terms this is poor professional etiquette unless the other veterinarian has been consulted and agrees to the change. solid-state lasers A solid-state laser is a laser that uses a gain medium that is a solid, rather than a liquid such as in dye lasers or a gas as in gas lasers. Semiconductor-based lasers are also in the solid state, but are generally considered as a separate class from solid-state lasers (see in various areas. The main factors contributing to this enormous power-output improvement are the carefully chosen quality of the semiconductor material, the design and the effective dissipation of excess energy away from the laser's active area. In addition to the perfectly round, high-quality beam, a further key OPS disk laser advantage is that the power output can be scaled up or down via the pump spot diameter. The previously available edge-emitting, high-power semiconductor lasers have only a limited beam quality and are only suitable for optical pumping of solid-state lasers (beam converters). Alternative semiconductor laser concepts with better beam quality have failed because the output was limited to just a few watts. The semiconductor material of the OPS disk lasers consists of an active layer of quantum films, which generate the light, and an integrated, high-quality semiconductor reflector reflector: see telescope. . A part of the infrared laser beam is then decoupled via a second, semi-permeable external resonator resonator /res·o·na·tor/ (rez´o-na?ter) 1. an instrument used to intensify sounds. 2. an electric circuit in which oscillations of a certain frequency are set up by oscillations of the same frequency in another mirror. Finally, a frequency-doubling process using non-linear optical (NLO NLO Next-to-Leading Order NLO Nonlinear Optics NLO Nobody Likes Onions (website) NLO National Liaison Officer NLO Naval Liaison Officer NLO National Labor Office NLO NETg Learning Object NLO No Load Operation ) crystals is used to convert the invisible infrared beam into visible light. In this process, two infrared photons are converted into a single photon with twice the energy in the visible range of the spectrum. In this type of application the external resonator mirror reflects the infrared laser beam but allows the visible, frequency-converted laser beam through. First applications in direct materials processing Articles on Materials processing include:
The power output of OPS disk lasers can be scaled up or down in a similar fashion to solid-state lasers. The round profile and high quality of the beam mean that the laser can be focused extremely well on the work piece. Semiconductor lasers could, for example, replace marking lasers based on solid-state lasers. Inscriptions and engravings, in addition to welding, drilling and cutting, can be performed far more cost-effectively with semiconductor lasers. Other potential application areas include energy and data transfer, automotive, printing and medical technology. Currently, laser projectors are still used for high-end applications, including planetariums, cinemas and flight simulators. These applications use high-performance, solid-state lasers, that, because of their size, high consumption of electricity and cooling water and high price tags, cannot be used in more broad-based applications. Thanks to the powerful semiconductor lasers, laser projection for normal end users in the form of laser televisions is now a reality in the near future. The advantages are clear: mixing the three complementary colors See under Color. See also: Complementary (red, green, blue and even white) can generate any shade of any color. Masking the three colors creates black. Laser beams produce excellent image definition and generate a picture that is virtually free of flickering and has bright, natural colors. The superior definition of the image means that the picture can be projected onto any kind of surface, consigning generations of televisions to history. About Osram Opto Semiconductors Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH of Regensburg is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Osram, one of the three largest lamp manufacturers in the world. It offers its customers solutions based on semiconductor technology for lighting, sensor and visualisation applications. The company has sites in Regensburg (Germany), San Jose (USA) and Penang (Malaysia). In the 2002 fiscal year (ending in September), around 3370 employees produced sales of EUR EUR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Euro. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 309 million. Further information: www.osram-os.com. |
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