From February 1 to 3, 2010, the Optical Society of America (OSA) ran an Optics and Photonics Congress consisting of three Topical Meetings, Advanced Solid State Photonics (ASSP), Applications of Lasers for Sensing and Free Space Communications (LS&C) and Laser Applications to Chemical, Security and Environmental Analysis (LACSEA). Q-Peak, Inc. presented one Invited Paper at the LS&C meeting, two papers at ASSP where the authors were soley from Q-Peak, another ASSP paper jointly with MIT Lincoln Laboratory (based on work funded under a Q-Peak contract) and a paper jointly with the Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, Scotland. Copies of all the papers are available below.
The OSA-managed ASSP Meeting, like Q-Peak, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2010. Peter Moulton, Q-Peak's VP/CTO, was involved in the initial organization of the meeting, as described here.
Q-Peak, Inc. has announced a major advance in fiber-laser technology, the demonstration of a 1-kW-cw-power, Tm-doped fiber laser, operating at 2040 nm. In contrast to prior published work, the fiber laser is of "all-glass" construction, with the pump power delivered to the active fiber through newly developed, all-glass, fiber pump-signal combiners. The system is a major step towards commercialization of high-power Tm:fiber lasers. The results, from a collaboration between Q-Peak and Nufern, Inc., were reported on January 28th in the Late-Breaking News session of the LASE Fiber Lasers VII Conference, part of the SPIE Photonics West 2010 Meeting in San Francsico. The work was supported through a contact with the High-Energy Laser Joint Technology Office of the US Department of Defense. A copy of the presentation is available here.
Q-Peak, Inc. celebrates it 25th year in 2010. The company has been and continues to be a pioneer in solid state lasers and nonlinear optics. The achievements have resulted from contractual research and development for the US Government as well as private companies worldwide. In addition, Q-Peak has developed innovative products. Two Q-Peak advances are noted in a a timeline compiled for SPIE and Laser Focus World by Jeff Hecht ("50 Years: Advancing the Laser"), a 1988 entry, under the SEO name, for one of the first commercial Ti:sapphire lasers, and a 2008 entry for the demonstration of high-power Tm:fiber lasers. The work on fiber lasers has continued, and this year, Q-Peak announced a 1-kW cw Tm:fiber laser, a new record for this technology (see separate news item).
Q-Peak began operations in 1985 as the Research Division of Schwartz Electro-Optics (SEO). It became a separate company under the present name in 1998 as a subsidiary of SEO, and changed ownership to become a subsidiary of Physical Sciences Inc. in 2001.
To help highlight 25 years of operation, Q-Peak has launched this newly updated website. One of the key elements is a compendium of all of Q-Peak's published papers in technical journals and many of its conference presentations, which can be found here.
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