Partners in Production
The first semiconductor lasers were produced in the laboratory in the early 1960s. Just months after their development, they were available for sale, their reliability and efficiency generating interest in the marketplace. Of course, the design and the manufacturing processes were immature, so this promising technology came at a stiff price: several thousand dollars for less than a milliwatt of power. Furthermore, they were not always reliable.
Forty years of development have improved our...
Photonics Spectra, July 2004