KMLabs commercially introduces direct diode pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast laser

(Image: KMLabs) After years of development, KMLabs has commercially introduced the first titanium:sapphire (Ti:sapphire) ultrafast laser oscillator directly pumped with blue-emitting laser diodes. Conventionally, Ti:sapphire lasers have been pumped with 532 nm (green) emitting frequency-doubled neodymium:YAG (Nd:YAG) lasers, or, more recently, smaller frequency-doubled vanadate lasers. Using direct diode pumping instead greatly reduces the cost of the Ti:sapphire laser oscillator system. In fact, KMLabs has found that it is now possible to pump a Ti:sapphire laser with a single inexpensive 4 W blue laser diode. The new diode-pumped Ti:Sapphire laser, which KMLabs calls the Stryde Blue, is, according to the company, a "fully engineered and integrated commercial source based on a single rugged optomechanical platform, and eliminates the need for costly frequency-doubled vanadate pump lasers."