Freedom Photonics Unveils aura™ Product Line: 2.5 Watt Diffraction-Limited 1550 nm Semiconductor Lasers and Amplifiers

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Freedom Photonics announced today the launch of their new high-power diffraction-limited semiconductor laser and semiconductor optical amplifier product line, aura™. The first commercial offerings are 1550 nm semiconductor lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers, which achieve 2.5 W continuous wave optical power with >25% E/O efficiency and nearly diffraction-limited beam quality (M² about 1.3).

“Conventional broad area edge emitting diode lasers offer excellent power conversion efficiency but poor beam quality, and for the past 30 years, the technology has not fundamentally changed; improvements in brightness and efficiency have been steady, but incremental. Our proprietary aura™ design solves the beam quality problem, thus delivering powers and efficiencies comparable to broad area lasers with nearly diffraction-limited output,” said Dr. Paul Leisher, VP of Research at Freedom Photonics. “This highly disruptive technology delivers a full order-of-magnitude increase in power compared to existing single spatial mode semiconductor lasers and amplifiers in this wavelength band.”

Freedom Photonics is beginning to deploy this chip technology into consumer, industrial, and defense markets. Applications of the 2.5 W aura™ 1550 nm laser include next-generation high brightness laser pump sources and illumination. Our aura™ semiconductor optical amplifier offers for the first time an alternative to bulky erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) critical to optical communication, sensing, and automotive LIDAR at substantially reduced cost.

Customization of aura™ lasers and amplifiers and extension to other wavelengths between 1300 nm and 2100 nm is possible.

More information regarding the performance and advancements enabled by aura™ will be presented by Dr. Jenna Campbell, Freedom Photonics’ Director of High Power Laser Engineering, at the 2021 IEEE International Semiconductor Laser Conference (ISLC) in Potsdam, Germany on Wednesday, October 13^th.

About Freedom Photonics LLC

Freedom Photonics is a Santa Barbara, California based manufacturer of unique and innovative photonic components, modules, and subsystems. Our best-in-class diode laser, photodetector, and photonic integrated circuit (PIC) products are enabling revolutionary performance in LIDAR, sensing, and communication markets. Our core competency is bringing photonics products from concept to volume production.