Optical and Laser Components

Flowtubes and Monoblocks are an essential component of the flashlamp-pumped pump chambers; they carry out the following functions:

• Provide flow-channel for cooling liquid;
• Absorb (filter-out) undesired UV-radiation, reducing heat load, thermal lensing effect and protesting the active medium from long-term solarization;
• Provide internal support for BaSO4 reflectors;
• Blocking lateral stimulated emission, which can depopulate the laser rod and significantly reduce amount of the extract-ed energy in Q-switched mode. For the Q-switched Nd:YAG Laser Samarium-doped Glass is the material of choice, be-cause it attenuates lateral depumping effects, thus avoiding super luminescence phenomena and absorbing undesired UV radiation.

Over the years Vigitek designed numerous handpiece for IPL of various power levels, spectral ranges and skin-cooling methods.

One of them is presented in the figures below:

Vigitek, Inc. designs and subcontracts fabrication of pump chambers for Solid-State Lasers with very high level of performance in terms of efficiency, pumping uniformity, lifetime and reliability. Two primary types of chambers that have been designed are presented below.

Light Duct is an optical element that can be used to transport, concentrate and homogenize light emitted by a flashlamp, single diode or an array of diodes. Laser or flashlamp light enters the duct through the curved surface and by means of Total Internal Reflection is transported towards the exit surface with simultaneous compression and homogenization. A broadband AR-coating can be applied to both entrance and exit surfaces to reduce Fresnel losses.

Vigitek, Inc. is one of a few companies that in collaboration with the manufacturers of a thin-film coated optics developed a technology of Variable-Reflectivity Coatings (aka Graded Reflectivity, or GRM) which delivers consistent and repeatable results. And while Nd:YAG mirrors with Ro ~ 30-40% can be obtained from several manufacturers, very few places can fabricate mirrors for low-gain lasers like Alexandrite , where Ro must be on the order of 75-80%, which requires a multi-layer coating that at the same time must withstand a high intracavity fluence of a few J/cm2. We can also design the unstable resonator in accordance with desired output characteristics.

Vigitek, Inc. is an exclusive manufacturer of the photosensitive ceramic material used for visualization of IR- and UV-radiation. The effect is based on up-conversion effect of IR beams and down-conversion of UV radiation. As a result, spectral range of 800-1700 nm is observed as a green light, and UV range between 200 and 400 nm appears as pink-orange color.