Newton, NJ and Boulder, CO – October 28, 2019
Thorlabs and KMLabs announced today that Thorlabs has acquired the KMLabs’ Y-Fi™ portfolio, a family of high average power, high repetition rate NIR/MIR ultrafast fiber lasers, OPAs, and NOPAs. Based on a patented fiber amplification technique, KMLabs’ ytterbium fiber lasers provide industry-leading short pulse durations at the microjoule level. The various models in the Y-Fi laser series are employed in a multitude of demanding ultrafast applications, including 2- and 3-photon imaging, ophthalmology, and time resolved studies in the NIR and MIR.
“I’m thrilled to add a highly talented, Boulder-based team to the Thorlabs family. The proximity to CU Boulder, JILA, and NIST provides excellent opportunities to work with these premier research institutions. Among the many applications supported by the Y-Fi lasers, the addition of the Y-Fi OPA laser allows Thorlabs to pair it with our Bergamo microscopes to offer complete 3-photon imaging solutions,” said Dr. Peter Fendel, Director of Thorlabs’ Laser Division.
“We view this as a truly great synergy between two companies. The Y-Fi laser family is unique and powerful in its ability to deliver the highest peak power in the MHz class while also being designed for ease of use and ruggedness. This is a perfect match with Thorlabs’ microscope portfolio and its laser and optics customer base. We couldn’t be more pleased to see these teams, which have already collaborated together so smoothly, now combining as part of the same great Thorlabs family,” says Dr. Kevin Fahey, CEO of KMLabs, Inc.
For more information on the Y-Fi product line acquired by Thorlabs, please contact Peter Fendel at pfendel@thorlabs.com.
About KMLabs: KMLabs is the only commercial provider for comprehensive, end-to-end research systems that leverage ultrafast pulses of extreme UV and soft X-ray light for a variety of experiments. The QM Quantum Microscope™ builds on the company’s world leading technology in high harmonic generation to enable a range of techniques including coherent diffraction imaging, photoemission, pump-probe spectroscopy, and EUV metrology. In addition, KMLabs continues to pioneer the development and engineering of standalone short wavelength sources including the Y-Fi VUV laboratory-based vacuum ultraviolet femtosecond laser source, and the Pantheon™ platform, a pulsed EUV source-beamline to generate and deliver EUV photons to user-supplied experimental stations.
About Thorlabs: Thorlabs, a vertically integrated photonics products manufacturer, was founded in 1989 to serve the laser and electro-optics research market. As that market has spawned a multitude of technical innovations, Thorlabs has extended its core competencies in an effort to play an ever increasing role serving the Photonics Industry at the research end, as well as the industrial, life science, medical, and defense segments. The organization’s highly integrated and diverse manufacturing assets include semiconductor fabrication of Fabry-Perot, DFB, and VCSEL lasers; fiber towers for drawing both silica and fluoride glass optical fibers; MBE/MOCVD epitaxial wafer growth reactors; extensive glass and metal fabrication facilities; advanced thin film deposition capabilities; and optomechanical and optoelectronic shops.