PicoQuant has extended its range of picosecond lasers with the release of a new laser head at 450nm and an improved laser head at 635nm. Both laser heads can be controlled by the established laser drivers of the PDL-Series. The laser at 450nm closes the gap between the already long time available wavelengths of 440nm and 470nm. It features pulse widths <70ps and an average output power up to 5mW at 40MHz repetition rate. The new laser head is also available in a dual mode version, that allows picosecond pulsed as well as continuous-wave operation with an output power of up to 10mW.
The laser at 635nm is now available in an improved version with higher average output powers up to 20mW at 80MHz repetition rate. The laser head features pulse widths <90ps and up to 50mW output in continuous wave operation. The availability of these new laser heads opens the door for a variety of new applications in bioanalytics, biochemistry, genetics, semiconductor characterisation and quality control. The laser heads are very well suited for exciting fluorescent proteins such as CFP or widely used fluorescent dyes such as ATTO 465, and are alternatives to frequency-doubled solid state lasers or argon-ion lasers in applications like fluorescence microscopy or fluorescence spectroscopy.
With pulse durations well below 100ps, the pulsed laser's head matches the time resolution of mainstream detectors, yet at a lower price than that of commonly used mode-locked lasers. The PicoQuant diode laser family (LDH Series) now covers the wavelength range from 375 to 485nm and from 635 to 1500nm. A special laser head at 531nm has also been recently released. All laser heads come with collimator optics that can optionally be fitted with optical fibres.