Oct 15 2009
Coherent, Inc. has introduced the world’s first commercial all solid-state laser with output at 568 nm. The new Sapphire™ 568 is available in models offering 50 mW, 75 mW, 100 mW, 150 mW and 200 mW of continuous wave (CW) output, and provides a stable, high quality beam (M²<1.1) with low noise (<0.25% rms from 20 Hz to 2 MHz). The Sapphire 568 is packaged in a highly compact laser head, measuring just 125 x 70 x 34 mm; this is identical to other Sapphire lasers at 561 nm, 488 nm, and 460 nm for the convenience of OEMs who incorporate multiple lasers.
The 568 nm wavelength, which is traditionally obtained from an ion laser, is widely used in a variety of bioinstrumentation applications based on fluorescence excitation. However, the large size, low efficiency, high heat dissipation, background discharge light and limited lifetime of ion lasers pose significant practical and cost disadvantages to systems builders. With its extremely low power consumption (<60W), excellent beam characteristics, all solid-state reliability and small size, the Sapphire 568 is a more economical and easier to integrate alternative for life science applications such as confocal microscopy and drug discovery. Furthermore, since the Sapphire 568 is wavelength compatible with legacy ion laser technology, instrument manufacturers can use the same optics and filters as employed in their existing designs. However, the Sapphire is available with much higher output power than most ion lasers (which typically only provide about 20 mW at 568 nm), thus enabling higher sensitivity, improved signal-to-noise and increased throughput speed.