PITTSBURGH, June 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- II‐VI Incorporated (NASDAQ:IIVI), a leading provider of high-power semiconductor lasers, today announced that it is ramping up production of 18 W pump laser diodes for fiber lasers.

Kilowatt class fiber lasers used for cutting, welding and brazing rely on component innovations to scale their performance. II-VI’s new high brightness laser diodes feature a 190 µm wide output facet designed to achieve optimum coupling efficiency into widely used 200 µm core fibers. The increased output power per emitter enables fiber laser manufacturers to generate higher power levels with a reduced number of emitters.  

“As a result of the strong demand for our new laser diodes, we will double our production capacity by the end of this year,” said Karlheinz Gulden, General Manager, II-VI Laser Enterprise. “Customers continue to rely on II-VI’s high-power semiconductor laser technology innovations that enable their fiber lasers to be competitive in terms of power, reliability and cost.”

The 18 W pump laser diodes are available at 915, 940 and 976 nm. They feature II-VI’s proprietary E2 front mirror passivation, preventing catastrophic optical damage to the laser diode facet even at extremely high output powers. The pump laser diodes are offered as bare dies, chips on ceramic sub-mount or in fiber-coupled single- and multi-emitter modules.

II-VI’s broad portfolio of components for fiber lasers includes seed lasers, acousto-optic modulators, pump and fiber laser combiners, as well as micro-optics for high power isolators and 10 kW IBS-coated laser optics.  II-VI also offers multi-kW laser heads and laser light cables.