QPC Lasers Inc., a Sylmar, Calif., maker of semiconductor lasers for industrial, defense, display and medical markets, was recently granted US Patent No. 7269195, “Laser Diode With an Amplification Section That has a Varying Index of Refraction," for a method to prevent the "self-focusing" (or defocusing) nonlinear optical phenomena, which can cause laser diodes to produce weak beams when operated at high power. QPC also announced it has added eight executives to its European, Asian and North American-based sales teams and in-house marketing team.