LASER COMPONENTS has manufactured hard dielectric coatings for high-power laser applications in house since 1986. Just four years following the founding of the company, LASER COMPONENTS added this second string to its bow: The company converted from a mere distributor to a manufacturer as well. What started out small transformed in 25 years into a large production facility that continues to expand. Almost all major laser manufacturers rely on laser optics “made by LASER COMPONENTS.”
History
The story behind optics production goes hand in hand with the founding story of LASER COMPONENTS. Günther Paul was asked by suppliers to found a company that sells optical and optoelectronic components. Dr. Yu Hahn, chairman of CVI Laser, in particular, encouraged him to launch a company in Germany and announced plans to open a coating facility if a corresponding OEM market blossomed.
Just three years after founding Laser Components GmbH, Dr. Hahn and Günther Paul decided to install an e-beam coater. CVI Laser GmbH, 30% of the shares of which were held by Mr. Paul, was founded on June 18, 1986, solely for coating purposes.
Dr. Küster was hired to supervise the facility. The plans were made from this first office location before going directly to CVI in Albuquerque, N.M., for product training. The coater there was disassembled and brought to the new L.C. production site in December 1985.
The Start
The first e-beam coater was designed to cover the entire European OEM market. Dr. Yu Hahn arrived in May 1986 to start production. But, as is the case in such a baptism by fire, something always goes wrong: water leakage in the coater due to a detached hose.
We paid dearly for this mistake: The following two years CVI Laser GmbH recorded only losses. On June 3, 1988, both companies, therefore, merged to become LASER COMPONENTS GmbH. Everything was smooth sailing from then on. In October 1989 the sales agreement with CVI was finally completely terminated and Günther Paul took over as sole proprietor of LASER COMPONENTS.
Production Expansion
The growing market for lasers led to increased demand for laser optics. The production facility in Olching was expanded little by little. Machinery was added and new technologies were developed.
- May 1986. Operation of the first e-beam coater begins.
- December 1995. The demand for OEM laser optics increases. A second e-beam coater is installed.
- May 1996. Takeover of Dr. Andreas Starke’s (from Coat Service Berlin) manufacturing technology for Gaussian mirrors.
- June 1997. A third modern e-beam coater with an integrated ion assisted deposition (IAD) source begins production.
- December 2003. The installation of yet another e-beam coater makes it possible to manufacture small batches inexpensively.
- May 2005. Operation of an RF sputtering unit begins.
- June 2008. Installation of an online monitoring system in the IAD coater
- March 2009. Shortages in the supply of raw substrates are compensated for by in-house lens production.
- July 2009. A state-of-the-art ultrasonic cleaning unit is installed to provide increased support in cleanroom preparations.
- March 2011. The coating of fiber ends is successful and thus expands our range of in-house products.
- April 2011. From now on state-of-the-art coatings can be manufactured using our ion beam sputtering (IBS) chamber.
- October 2011. Operation of a new spectral photometer for measurement tasks begins.
Numbers Game – Production in Numbers
- Number of employees:
1986: 4 people
2011: 16 people
- Number of optics produced per year:
1986: a few 100
2011: about 70,000
A Look to the Future
Dispersive femtosecond laser mirrors, narrow-banded filters that are suitable for high power levels, coatings that vary in their refractive index and have the highest damage threshold or very broadband mirrors and anti-reflection coatings are the vision of the future. Developments continue, and the motivated, now 16-person production staff headed by Martin Schacht will keep on doing their best to further your applications with our products!
