Leonardo Electronics US was thrilled to attend Photonics West 2024 in
San Francisco and showcase our high-power laser diode component and system products.
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There were a record-breaking 24,000+ registered attendees and 1600+ exhibitors. Leonardo participated in the conference technical sessions: |
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- Jenna Bergevin, Senior Project Engineer at Leonardo, presented our fiber-coupled laser diode and high-power fiber amplifier, “Compact-Lightweight Fiber-Coupled Diode Pump Source Using a Bar Approach.”
- Elaine McWay, Lawrence Livermore, a longtime partner of Leonardo, co-wrote a paper with our engineering and technical staff, “Aging Mechanisms of Broad Area High-Power Approximately 800 nm Laser Diodes.”
In addition, Clifford Headley, Director of Engineering, Fiber Systems, chaired the session, “Mid-IR Fiber Laser.” The session included speakers from various companies presenting their contributions to fiber laser research and product manufacturing.
“Compact-Lightweight Fiber-Coupled Diode Pump Source Using a Bar Approach”
Bergevin spoke to over 100 attendees about our fiber-coupled laser diode, F8, and the high-power fiber amplifier, A20. She posited that there is a significant need in the defense industry for lightweight products that also maintain efficiency. The single-emitter diode approach has previously been the standard; however, the bar-based approach has shown the same results but in a lighter package. She also introduced Leonardo’s F8 fiber-coupled bar-based diode, which is ultra-compact and lightweight. The F8 is used to build a high-power fiber amplifier, the A20. With the emitters being closer together, the system is cooled more efficiently. There was no power or light quality change when running continuously at 32A for over 1,000 hours.
Upcoming technical conference events:
- April 17-19 (Aachen, Germany) AKL – International Laser Technology Congress
- Dr. Steve Patterson, CTO of the Laser Solutions Business Unit, will present the technical paper “Advances in laser diode pumps – pioneering high-energy DPSSLs for the petawatt regime.”
- April 21-25 (National Harbor, Maryland) SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing
- Patrick Keiffer, Product Engineering Manager, will present the paper “Advances in ultra-high brightness semiconductor laser diode pump sources for enabling Megawatt-class laser systems.”
- Robert Walker, VP of Strategy and Business Development, will moderate a panel discussion on Directed Energy: Industrial Base Readiness to support Directed Energy Programs of Record.