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Buying Optical Delay Lines

Top-level product category: icon various devices

Related product category: fiber coils

Optical delay lines introduce a controlled time delay for a light beam, essential for interferometers, communications devices, autocorrelators, electro-optic sampling, and pump–probe measurements. Some devices offer a variable delay, allowing periodic scanning.

Making Good Purchase Decisions

As the most professional photonics purchasing portal, RP Photonics helps you to not only to find all relevant suppliers (not limited to our advertisers), but also to make good purchasing decisions.

NEW: Structured Decision Process

Purchasing involves a lot of responsibility. We recommend that you apply best practice by using the following structured process: Go through the following expandable sections, complete the form and finally come to a purchase decision. You can then print that to a PDF for documenting the process.

Our article on best practices for purchasing and another one explaining this tool give you valuable insights.

1. Understand the technical background

It is important to sufficiently understand the technology before buying.

Use the comprehensive learning resources of RP Photonics:

encyclopedia article optical delay lines

If you need personal help, contact RP Photonics to get technical consultancy.

2. Define your requirements

It is essential to fully understand and clearly define your requirements before you buy.

We recommend that you develop a list of clear specifications according to your specific needs, against which you can later check the suitability of found product offers:

To help you, we have already listed some aspects we recommend you consider when buying optical delay lines. Of course, there may be other aspects that are relevant to your specific case.

This list is for your own preparation, and can later (possibly in modified form) be used for quotation requests to suppliers.

Otherwise, you will need to talk to your technical colleagues.

If you cannot sufficiently clarify your requirements, you may want to get technical consultancy from RP Photonics.

You find these buttons in the supplier list below or under "3. Find suitable suppliers".

3. Find suitable suppliers

We suggest three steps:

  • Below, you can find our list of suppliers for optical delay lines. Use the checkboxes to mark possibly suitable suppliers.
  • The selected suppliers will appear below this list, along with your list of specifications. You can then indicate which specifications they meet according to your research. (You should finalize your specifications before doing this.)
  • Based on the results, you can finally choose a supplier that is hopefully a good enough fit.

Selected suppliers:

(none so far)

Decision

The most suitable supplier you found:

Comments, e.g. reasons for your choice, or things which still need to be checked:

Suppliers for Optical Delay Lines

21 suppliers for optical delay lines (ODL) are listed in the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide, out of which 5 present their product descriptions. Both manufacturers and distributors can be registered.

Suppliers with Advertising Package

presenting their product descriptions

YOUR KEY to innovation and success

UltraFast Innovations GmbH
Dieselstr. 5
85748 Garching (München)
Germany
Profile page  Website  

See us at LASER World of Photonics 2025 in Munich, June 24–27 (booth B1.543)!

optical delay lines

K2, by UltraFast Innovations (UFI®), is a pulse delay unit specially designed for the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and soft X-ray region, where particularly high precision and stability are required. A two-segment mirror sends IR pulses and lower divergent XUV/soft X-ray pulses to a common focus with an interferometrically adjustable precise time delay. This allows temporally resolved experiments with pumping systems of interest either with the XUV/soft X-ray pulse and probe it with the IR or vice-versa. Based on the nature of e.g., attosecond pulses generated in the XUV/soft X-ray range by high harmonic generation (HHG), this offers state-of-the-art highest temporal resolution for your experiments.

Product-specific web page
O/E Land Inc.
7639 Cordner
Lasalle, Quebec H8N 2X2
Canada
Profile page  Website  
optical delay lines

Our precise variable optical delay line is based on our unique optical alignment technology with up to 50, 100, 200 or 400 mm air path variation, corresponding to optical delays of up to 165, 330, 660, and 1300 ps, respectively. Both electrical and manual versions are available. This product is an ideal solution for network equipment, test instrument and lab testing applications.

Product-specific web page
Thorlabs
43 Sparta Avenue
Newton, NJ 07860
United States
Profile page  Website  

See us at LASER World of Photonics 2025 in Munich, June 24–27 (booth B2.403, A1.530) and CLEO 2025 in Long Beach (CA), USA, May 4–9 (booth 113)!

optical delay lines

Ready-to-use optical delay lines manufactured by Thorlabs include the drive system necessary for computer-controlled variation of optical path lengths. With delays up to 4,000 ps and time resolution down to 0.67 fs, these systems compliment our family of ultrafast optics and laser systems.

Product-specific web page
APE Angewandte Physik und Elektronik GmbH
Plauener Straße 163–165 / Haus N
13053 Berlin
Germany
Profile page  Website  

See us at LASER World of Photonics 2025 in Munich, June 24–27 (booth B2.410) and CLEO 2025 in Long Beach (CA), USA, May 4–9 (Kiosk 731)!

optical delay lines

The APE ScanDelay is a variable optical delay line, allowing the introduction of a well-defined time delay into an optical path – for example, for pump–probe measurements. The delay is periodically controlled by a fast scanning shaker at a frequency of up to 20 Hz.

The heart of APE’s optical delay line series is a special linear translation stage that is supplied together with appropriate control and drive electronics. The linear drive has been designed especially for optical applications. It combines low moving mass with compactness, reaching a high speed, as well as high precision and resolution. The delay drive has frictionless movement, a large and precise travel range, and it allows for very small displacements without any stick-slip-effects.

The control electronic contains the motion driver and a quartz stabilized signal synthesizer. It can be synchronized with an external clock for a precise, phase-locked scanner movement.

Product-specific web page
G&H
Dowlish Ford
Ilminster TA19 0PF
United Kingdom

See us at LASER World of Photonics 2025 in Munich, June 24–27 (booth B2.303)!

optical delay lines

G&H designs and manufactures custom modules – fiber assemblies of passive and/or active optical components integrated to provide higher functionality in a compact footprint. Customers sourcing fiber optic assemblies stay focused on their core competence while reducing time to market and development costs. Our in-depth understanding of optical component performance, combined with the use of low loss G&H products, ensures optimized designs. Advanced assembly techniques such as ribbon splicing and fiber recoating are used to provide robustness, reduce form factors, and minimize manufacturing costs.

At G&H, we take a custom module designs from specification all the way through to a manufactured product. We are expert in mechanical design for optics, fiber optics, and fiber assemblies. Our fiber assemblies include pigtailed lasers, spectrometers, optical delay lines, telescopes, and fiber collimators. The most complex assemblies can include bulk optics, fiber optics, motion control, and electronics.

Product-specific web page

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Other Suppliers

AFW Technologies Pty Ltd.
Australia
EMCORE Corporation
United States
Fastlite
France
Profile page  Website  
Femtochrome Research
United States
HJ Optronics Inc.
United States
IDIL Fibres Optiques
France
Profile page  Website  
Kylia
France
Laser Components GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  
LIGENTEC SA
Switzerland
Profile page  Website  
Newport Corporation
United States
OWIS GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  
OZ Optics
Canada
RFOptic
Israel
Profile page  Website  
SiCART Technology
China
TeraSpinTec GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  
Ultrafast Systems
United States
Profile page  Website  

If any displayed information is incorrect (e.g., a listed supplier does not offer such products) or legally problematic, please notify RP Photonics so that the problem can be solved.



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