Shimadzu Launches New Series of Planar Diffraction Gratings for Laser System Applications

Shimadzu Corporation will launch the new customizable ‘LA series’ of planar diffraction gratings for laser systems. Diffraction grating elements for 633 nm to 1064 nm waveband with 1600 lines/mm, exhibit a diffraction efficiency of 98%—the highest in this category of technology. This feature is important for expansion and compression of laser pulses for light sources used in laser processing. The gratings can also be used in analytical instruments for research in the life sciences, chemistry, environmental monitoring, and optical communications.

Diffraction grating elements separate ‘white light’, which contains many different wavelengths of light, into separate wavelengths. Typically, diffraction gratings consist of a substrate surface ruled with highly ordered grooves with a density of hundreds to thousands of grooves per millimeter. Diffraction gratings are key devices for the extraction of specific wavelengths of light from multi-wavelength light sources for a wide range of industrial applications.

Shimadzu Corporation has a long history in the manufacture of high performance planar, concave, toroidal, and laminar gratings, and currently has the number one share in the Japanese market. Notably, the excellent aberration correction of the gratings is realized by the unique ‘aspheric wave-front recording method’ and reactive ion-beam etching technology. The low stray light and high diffraction efficiency of Shimadzu Corporation diffraction gratings finds a wide range of applications including analytical instruments used for research in the life sciences, chemistry, and environment, synchrotron radiation, as well as optical communications.

Recently, diffraction gratings are being increasingly integrated into variable wavelength lasers for medical imaging equipment such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and high power pulsed lasers for laser processing. In response to these demands, Shimadzu Corporation has further improved its highly cultivated metal coating technology enabling the production of highly resilient “LA series” diffraction gratings.