Ondax Awarded National Science Foundation Grant For Tunable Laser Development

May 12, 2010 - PRLog -- Ondax, Inc., the industry leader in Volume Holographic Grating (VHG) filter technology for wavelength stabilization and high-performance optical filtering applications, announced today that it recently received a $500,000 Phase II award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue development of a novel miniature external-cavity tunable single frequency laser.  The grant follows an earlier successful demonstration of a self-aligned, non-dispersive, tunable single frequency laser incorporating a multiline VHG element.  The objectives of the second phase will be to extend the tuning range and develop mode-hop-free fine wavelength tuning.

According to Randy Heyler, Ondax President and CEO, “Receiving this Phase II NSF award is a validation of both the technology and the market potential for this unique design, which greatly reduces both the size and cost of tunable lasers across the blue-violet to the infrared range.  Its design is also fundamentally easier to manufacture, and should enable adoption of tunable, stabilized laser sources into applications where size or cost were limiting factors, such as in bio-pharmaceutical analysis, homeland security, high-precision spectroscopy, and environmental sensing.”

Dr. John L. (Jan) Hall, a pioneer in single frequency lasers and precision spectroscopy for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005, contributed technical guidance in the first phase of this program, and will continue to be involved in the Phase II development work.  He remains enthusiastic about the potential of the technology for several new spaced-based high-precision spectroscopy applications.  “This design offers a potentially unique combination of power, frequency stability and small size that we have yet to realize for our planned space-based instrumentation.  We are always happy to see new high-performance lasers emerge with the potential to stand up to NASA’s shake tests!”  Dr. Hall is currently scientist emeritus in the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST), remains a founding fellow of the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA, located at the University of Colorado at Boulder), and owns Hall Stable Lasers, LLC.

Dr. Christophe Moser, Ondax Founder, CTO and co-Principal Investigator on the program, added: “We are optimistic about the possibilities for this new platform, and have generated extensive interest in funding for commercialization.  This is a natural extension of our core competency in VHG-based wavelength stabilization and single frequency control, and allows us to provide a new level of system-level performance in demanding instrumentation applications.”

# # #

Ondax, Inc. manufactures high-performance VHG filters and wavelength-stabilized laser sources for a wide range of applications. Our state-of-the-art VHGs improve laser diode performance by increasing spectral brightness, locking emission wavelength and increasing yields. In ultra-fast lasers, chirped VHGs reduce the form factor of conventional pulse compressors while enabling higher laser power. Our single-frequency VHG-stabilized diode lasers cover wavelengths from 403nm to 860 nm for applications in Raman spectroscopy, biomedical and analytical instrumentation, environmental sensing, metrology, and scientific research. Ondax’s principal fabrication and integration facility is located in Monrovia, CA.

For additional information contact:

Randy Heyler
President and CEO
Ondax, Inc.
Tel. (626) 803-5732
rheyler@ondax.com

Linda West
VP Sales and Marketing
Ondax, Inc.
Tel. (626) 803-5724
lwest@ondax.com