Santa Clara, Calif., January 14, 2002 – Coherent Laser Division (CLD) will showcase the Azure™, a continuous-wave (CW), diode-pumped, deep-ultraviolet (UV) laser at Photonics West in San Jose, California, January 22-24, 2002. A unique "hands-free" 266-nm laser source, the Azure has been designed for industrial applications ranging from writing fiber Bragg gratings to semiconductor metrology. In the semiconductor market, for example, Azure’s 266-nm wavelength allows the detection of small but critical defects that longer wavelengths miss. And for disc mastering, it enables CDs and DVDs higher information storage density than was available in the past from standard 351-nm and 413-nm devices.
Azure uses Coherent’s field-proven Verdi laser to generate light at 532 nm; the output is then doubled to 266 nm. The result is a stable, reliable, long life 266-nm laser with an output power of 200 mW and a TEM00 beam profile. The unit also features Coherent’s Sentinel™ system—an on-board series of automated capabilities that control beam pointing, maintain output power, shift the crystal and relock the cavity. For easy integration into any manufacturing environment, Azure measures just 14.4 x 23.3 x 7.0 inches, runs on 100-250 VAC and requires minimal water cooling.
"The Azure is rugged, easy to integrate, and although it’s a frequency-doubled device, its near diffraction-limited beam has the ultra-low amplitude noise that is characteristic of a single-frequency laser source," said Terry Hannon, senior marketing manager for Coherent Laser Division. "And since we’ve incorporated automatic control of all operating features, it is the first all-solid-state, deep-UV laser to operate fully hands-off and be independent from regular user or service intervention for many thousands of operating hours."