Coherent (Santa Clara, CA) announced that it has increased its minority share in Microlase Ltd. (Glasgow, Scotland) to full ownership. Coherent had purchased 25% of Microlase in April 1998 and purchased the remaining 75% of what is now Coherent Scotland late last month. Microlase is a manufacturer of a range of advanced solid-state lasers for developing applications including scientific research and semiconductor test equipment.
Coherent also announced the introduction of the first of a series of optical components for the dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) market. The ComEts line of components enhances the frequency stability of laser transmitters; a line of dense WDM filters will be introduced later this year.
In addition, Coherent Laser Group and Picometrix (Ann Arbor, MI) have formed a collaborative effort to manufacture and market commercial systems based on time-domain, terahertz (T-ray) technology, which involves the use of 100-fs laser pulses to generate, detect, and measure picosecond electromagnetic pulses (T-rays).—Hassaun Jones-Bey