12 Years of TOPTICA

: TOPTICA Photonics located close to Munich

TOPTICA Photonics AG was established in February 1998 when TuiLaser AG, an important manufacturer of excimer lasers, decided that its business unit Diode Laser was large and successful enough to become an independent entity. Under its former name TuiOptics GmbH the company grew substantially and had become a leading supplier of high-end diode laser systems for scientific as well as for industrial applications. The new corporate structure, established in 2001 under the new name TOPTICA Photonics AG, was a prominent result of this encouraging development.

: Tunable diode laser

Inherited business areas are the development, manufacture and sales of tunable diode lasers for scientific research and industrial use. The first product, the grating tuned diode laser DL 100, was developed together with Prof. Hänsch of the University of Munich for applications in atom cooling and atom trapping already in 1995. Since then, TOPTICA Photonics has continued to convert the latest developments into commercial products based on the virtues of small linewidth at comparatively low cost. By adding new features like semiconductor amplifiers or intra-cavity frequency-doubling the company also opened new power levels and wavelength ranges for diode laser systems. Triggered by the strong relations to universities, the product range of TOPTICA Photonics in the field of compact lasers is steadily expanding, serving the forefronts of research (Physics Nobel Prize both in 1997 [Chu, Cohen-Tannoudji, Phillips] and 2001 [Cornell, Ketterle, Wieman]) but also the breadth of global research and engineering efforts.

: Computer-To-Plate technology

TOPTICA Photonics as a medium-sized enterprise takes pride in rapidly developing and engineering customer-specific systems not only for research institutions, but also customized OEM diode lasers for industrial manufacturers of metrology or production equipment. With a focus on high-end specifications such as diffraction limited wavefront quality, ultrafast pulsing and full microprocessor control, TOPTICA Photonics converts laser diodes into high precision light sources, which are capable of replacing conventional, expensive and complicated lasers in industrial instrumentation. This philosophy helped TOPTICA Photonics in 2000 become the leading supplier of violet laser diodes for Computer-To-Plate printing, a position that has been extended to BioPhotonics over the next years.

: Blu-ray test drive for quality control

In the field of optical data storage, TOPTICA Photonics has launched together with Prof. Mansuripur (Optical Science Center, Tucson) new types of test devices for optical data storage that have evolved into the leading development tools for technology leaders. The distinctive innovation path is recognizable in the flexibility of the devices, that they can be operated for example with different laser types and wavelengths between 400 and 700 nm as well as with different substrate materials or optical storage strategies including holographic schemes. They allow read, write and erase experiments with read-only, phase-change and magneto-optical discs independent of substrate thickness. We at TOPTICA Photonics are devoted to maintaining the technical leadership in this quickly evolving and growing market of testers for optical mass storage.

A fourth major technology area has been started together with Prof. A. Leitenstorfer in Konstanz in 2003 where state-of-the art research technology on ultrashort fiber laser technology was converted to leading edge light sources for scientific and industrial applications. At “LASER World of PHOTONICS 2009” for example TOPTICA presented far tunable visible fiber laser and picosecond fiber laser seeders for high power laser as used in laser machining. Applications and advances in BioPhotonics, THz generation, or Nanotechnology are driving this field quickly further. TOPTICA offers in the mean time fiber-based solutions from 10 fs pulse duration to lowest noise cw fiber laser amplifiers with more than 30 Watt for use in the latest astronomical telescopes.

TOPTICA commercial success is documented by the expanding sales presence in the area of opto-electronics, initiated by our own production needs and, most important, customer demand. TOPTICA Photonics offers outstanding products from international companies for all possible applications addressed by its product base.

We are continually looking for new challenges. You are always welcome to discuss your diode laser application with our team of scientists and engineers. Please call now!

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12 Years of TOPTICA

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