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Nanosecond Lasers

Author: the photonics expert Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta (RP)

Definition: lasers emitting optical pulses with nanosecond durations

Categories: article belongs to category laser devices and laser physics laser devices and laser physics, article belongs to category light pulses light pulses

DOI: 10.61835/36m Cite the article: BibTex plain text HTML Link to this page! LinkedIn

Optical pulses with pulse durations in the nanosecond regime are required for many applications, including laser material processing, distance measurements, and remote sensing. In most cases, they are generated with lasers, either by Q switching or by gain switching.

Q-switched lasers can deliver high pulse energies – for example, several millijoules from solid-state lasers with moderate sizes, and multiple joules from somewhat larger devices. Depending on design details, the emission may occur in a single longitudinal mode of the laser resonator, in this case leading to a very narrow linewidth (→ narrow-linewidth lasers).

Gain-switched lasers can also generate nanosecond pulses, but with much lower pulse energies. In the case of semiconductor lasers, the peak power is often limited to the order of 1 W. Gain-switched fiber-coupled semiconductor lasers are interesting seed sources for fiber amplifiers, and such MOPA devices are increasingly seen as a possible substitute for Q-switched lasers in many cases, at least for pulse energies not exceeding a few millijoules. One of the main advantages is the great flexibility of modifying both pulse repetition rate and pulse duration electronically, and keeping the pulse duration constant when the repetition rate is varied in large ranges. Also, such devices can be fabricated at lower cost.

More to Learn

Suppliers

The RP Photonics Buyer's Guide contains 94 suppliers for nanosecond lasers. Among them:

HÜBNER Photonics

HÜBNER Photonics offer pulsed nanosecond lasers in the Cobolt Tor Series: up to 0.5 mJ/pulse, <5 ns pulse width, 7 kHz pulse repetition rate with single pulse triggerable and free running models.

RPMC Lasers

Serving North America, RPMC Lasers offers highly flexible nanosecond lasers with configurable platforms, tailored for defense, medical, industrial, and research markets, seamlessly integrating into OEM systems for diverse applications and materials.

Attractively priced, these time-tested lasers balance power and precision without the premium cost of shorter pulses, delivering high performance, low maintenance, and a low total cost of ownership.

Spanning IR to deep UV, they provide fundamental wavelengths and up to 5^th harmonics, ensuring the right wavelength for ceramics, delicate polymers, biological tissues, or your specific needs.

Let RPMC help you find the right nanosecond laser today!

Teem Photonics

Teem Photonics offers air-cooled diode-pumped passively Q-switched lasers, for nanosecond pulse emission. Available emission wavelengths is at 1064 nm, 532 nm, 355 nm or 266 nm.

MPB Communications

MPBC’s line of nanosecond pulsed fiber lasers have been designed to give users flexibility in their application refinement. With wavelengths from 514 nm to 1700 nm, and user-selectable pulse widths and repetition rates, these lasers put more options into the hands of the users than traditional lasers with fixed parameters. Externally triggerable models offer advanced controls.

Based on an all-fiber laser cavity, these lasers offer excellent beam quality and wall plug efficiency in a compact air-cooled laser package.

GWU-Lasertechnik

GWU-Lasertechnik has more than 30 years of experience in lasers and nonlinear optics. We are the pioneer of commercial BBO OPO technology. Our widely tunable laser sources cover the spectral range from the deep-UV at <190 nm to the IR at >2700 nm. The scanSeries nanosecond product line offers scalable pulse energy at various repetition rates. As a unique feature, GWU can provide high-speed wavelength scanning across the complete wavelength range with shot-to-shot dynamic. Our all-solid-state laser design ensures maximum reliability for diode-pumped and flash-lamp pumped lasers.

CNI Laser

CNI offer nanosecond Q-switched lasers with wavelength coverage from 223 nm to 4800 nm. We have versions with pulse energies from 1 μJ to 10 J, repetition rates from 1 Hz to 200 kHz and pulse width from 0.8 ns to 200 ns. The lasers can be actively or passively cooled with air or water, or with conduction cooling, and there are various controls and outputs.

Bright Solutions

Bright Solutions offers various Q-switched lasers with nanosecond pulse durations:

Wedge: 266, 355, 532, 1064, 1570, 3100 nm (also multi-wavelength configurations), used e.g. for atmospheric LIDAR, monitoring, glass machining or lithography
Onda: compact monolithic nanosecond Q-switched lasers for 266, 355, 532 or 1064 nm, used e.g. for lens marking, plastic marking or intravolume glass marking
Sol: compact Q-switched lasers for 355, 532 or 1064 nm, up to 200 kHz, used e.g. for automotive fabrication, electronic machining, ID card writing and other industrial applications
Aero: high energy lasers with up to 200 mJ at 1064 nm, 100 mJ at 532 nm, multi-wavelength configurations, custom beam shaping, application e.g. in atmospheric LIDAR, LIBS or nonlinear spectroscopy
ONE DPSS – miniaturized Q-switched lasers with up to 200 μJ and down to 3 ns, e.g. for atmospheric LIDAR and laser marking on plastics

Geola

Geola's nanosecond lasers are offered with:

pulse energies from 2 mJ to 10 J
pulse durations of 1 ns to 400 ns
standard repetition rate – single shot to 50 Hz
fundamental wavelength at either 1047, 1053, 1064, 1079, 1313, 1319, 1338 or 1342 nm

AdValue Photonics

The EVERESTnano 1 µm pulsed fiber laser is suitable for laser marking, cutting and ablation. It generates 5-ns pulses with up to 100 W average power and up to 500 kHz repetition rate. The free-space output beam at 1030 nm exhibits a beam quality factor below 1.3.

Thorlabs

Thorlabs manufactures nanosecond pulsed laser diode systems that are designed to provide a convenient, turnkey source of nanosecond pulse trains at repetition frequencies up to 10 MHz. These compact instruments are available with center wavelengths from 405 nm to 980 nm with maximum peak pulse optical output powers ranging from 13 mW to 1600 mW.

ALPHALAS

ALPHALAS offers actively and passively Q-switched DPSS lasers (IR, VIS & UV) with pulse widths < 1 ns, which are suitable for applications requiring high peak power and precise synchronization. Both types of lasers feature TEM₀₀ beam profile and compact design.

Microchip passively Q-switched lasers are mechanically extremely stable with very high pulse-to-pulse stability, pulse energies up to 1.5 mJ and > 2 MW peak power with pulse duration down to 500 ps.

The actively Q-switched lasers feature a timing jitter < 500 ps, optionally down to 300 ps. Repetition rates from single shot up to 100 kHz and average power up to 5 W are available.

Higher energy and power is possible using MOPA arrangement.

Applications: micromachining, marking & cutting (e.g. diamonds), nonlinear optics, supercontinuum generation, time-resolved fluorescence measurements, pollution monitoring, LIBS, ignition of explosives & combustion engines.

Picophotonics

Compact and cost-effective OEM and turn-key lasers with nanosecond pulse duration, tunable 1 – 200 kHz pulse repetition rate and µJ pulse energy at 532, 767, 1064 and 1535 nm.

Megawatt Lasers

MegaWatt Lasers's ER902 is a passively Q-switched erbium glass laser that operates at 1.54 μmm. This eye-safe wavelength is ideal for defense, LIBS, and LIDAR applications. The design allows for 10 Hz repetition rates with a 4 ns pulse width and a 200 μJ pulse energy. All in a 9 mm diameter by 20 mm length package.

Lumibird

Lumibird manufactures a wide range of nanosecond pulsed lasers thanks to its expertise in three key technologies: solid-state lasers, fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers, and laser diodes. Various application areas are addressed in industry (manufacturing, lidar sensors), science (laboratories and universities), medical (ophthalmology) and defense.

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