Shareholding of Fraunhofer
Fraunhofer Venture
m2k-laser GmbH
The Company
m2k-laser GmbH was founded in Freiburg, Germany, in 2001 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF with the support of Fraunhofer Venture. m2k-laser focuses on the design, customized development, and production of innovative high-power and high-brightness diode lasers. Based on the III-V semiconductor materials GaAs, InP and GaSb, single emitters, laser arrays, and fiber-coupled modules with wavelengths ranging from 750nm to 2500nm are manufactured and marketed. In particular with its tapered laser technology, m2k-laser caused a worldwide sensation in the past years. At the beginning of 2007, ROFIN-SINAR acquired the majority stake in m2k-laser.
Products and Technology
In comparison to conventional gas or solid-state lasers, high-performance diode lasers offer great advantages: They achieve up to ten times higher efficiency, are smaller, more cost-efficient, durable, and reliable. The essential disadvantage used to be a poor beam quality. This limitation is eliminated by the tapered laser developed by Freiburg scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF; through the founding of m2k-laser GmbH and with the support of Fraunhofer Venture, series-production standard could be achieved. For many applications, the compact high-performance laser therefore competes with solid-state and fiber lasers: in measurement and production engineering, spectroscopy and analytics as well as in medical technology. Due to its particular beam quality, it is especially suitable for fiber-based applications.
Tapered laser technology
A laser's quality and utilizability is dependent on two criteria: It should achieve a high output power and the beam quality is also essential for the laser beam's focusability and precision. The tapered laser combines both characteristics through the implementation of optimized semiconductor material in connection with a trapezoidal design. Thus, it achieves a high optical output power of more than 5 watt and at the same time an outstanding beam quality. With the same power rating, the tapered laser beam features a more than 25 times higher power density than conventional high-performance diode lasers.
Mid-infrared high-performance lasers
For wavelengths above 1850nm, m2k-laser disposes of a USP with their high-performance lasers. Over the last years, m2k has developed a complete product portfolio for mid-infrared wavelengths comprising single emitters and laser arrays as well as fiber-coupled modules and laser stacks. For the first time, users are offered very high optical performance based on diode laser technology for this interesting wavelength range. These tapered lasers and amplifiers are suitable for a wide variety of applications. In laser surgery, for example, their application is based on the absorption of water at 1940nm, in material processing, on the distinct absorption of plastics in this wavelength range. The diode lasers are furthermore used as optical pump sources for solid-state, fiber, or disk lasers to achieve emission in the wavelength range between 2μm and 4μm.
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