COOL Technology

TOPTICA's COOL (Constant Optical Output Level) technology is a unique solution for high-power, hands-off, fiber-coupled lasers. Aligning and focusing a laser beam into ultra-tiny single-mode fibers with the highest efficiency is challenging. Even the slightest laser pointing fluctuations, tiny beam path deviations, and minimal thermal or mechanical drifts in the fiber mounting can contribute to a significant loss of fiber coupling efficiency, resulting in reduced power and performance for the user. Until now, manual realignment by a trained person was often required during installation and periodically to recalibrate the laser output power. However, manually aligning optomechanical fiber couplers with external tools can be error-prone and time-consuming.

TOPTICA's COOL, a patented fiber coupling concept, saves users time and effort with its automated fiber coupling (COOL ^AC) or permanently aligned fiber coupling (COOL ^DC). TOPTICA's COOL technology does not use any mechanical adjustable parts, such as those found in optomechanical fiber couplers. COOL ^AC optimizes fiber coupling and can monitor fiber coupling efficiency internally without the need for external tools or equipment, such as power meters. This means the fiber can remain connected to the microscope or user set-up while fiber alignment is optimized at the touch of a button in the Graphical user interface (GUI). With TOPTICA's COOL ^DC technology, all major optical components are solidly mounted and the optical micro-alignment is resistant to mechanical and thermal distortions or translations.