UniKLasers has launched a new ultraviolet (UV) laser, the Duetto 349. This is a single frequency DPSS CW device which emits at 349 nm with a 50 mW output; the first laser to operate with single frequency at 349 nm. The laser can be used across a wide range of scientific research and industrial engineering processes, including Raman spectroscopy, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, high precision optics and biomedical engineering. Current UV CW laser solutions for these applications are large, either due to a need for a gas cavity, external doubling cavity or additional frequency-doubling steps. This hinders integration into existing, established measurement systems where lasers with a small footprint, low ongoing maintenance requirements and high stability are well suited.
Part of the R&D work on the Duetto 349 has been to engineer the system so the UV source replaces and improves existing sources such as HeCd or third harmonic Nd:YAG lasers: both of which can produce wavelengths close to UniKLasers’ Duetto 349 in CW (continuous-wave, not pulsed). The Duetto 349 only uses one non-linear step, as opposed to two, without the need for a Nd:YAG fundamental laser at 1064 nm, making it smaller and more efficient, overall, whereas HeCd, being a large, gas-filled laser, produces an output at 325 nm. Unlike these two legacy laser sources, most lasers in the UV region are pulsed due to crystal damage/degradation so there are few sources capable of producing CW UV output at this wavelength.
