Under the Small Business Innovation Research program, Aculight Corp. of Bothell, Wash., has received a Phase II contract from the US Department of Energy for $750,000 and a Phase I contract from the National Institutes of Health for $100,000. The company will fabricate a short-pulse fiber laser for the department that will operate over a wide-repetition-rate range for use in active imaging and remote sensing systems.

The institute's allotment will fund the development of an ultraviolet laser source as part of a proposed portable Raman spectrometer that could have applications in medical imaging, security and industrial sensing.