SUITABLE for life science applications, the newest Genesis lasers from Coherent is aimed at instruments where space is at a premium. Measuring just 250 x 51 x 138mm, the Genesis CX 355 STM Compact is only half the size of others in the range but still has output power of up to 100mW.
Genesis CX 355 STM from Coherent offers 100mW UV laser output
The CX 355 produces a continuous wave laser at 355nm and with TEM00 beam quality, using Coherent’s optically pumped semiconductor laser (OPSL) technology.
The company says the Genesis range is the first commercial solid-state alternative to ion lasers for applications needing true, continuous wave, ultraviolet output. Other solid-state UV lasers in this wavelength and power range can only deliver quasi-CW output with extremely high peak power that can damage live cells, it says.
Coherent also says that Genesis lasers offer several advantages over ion lasers including solid-state stability and reliability, an order of magnitude increase in electrical efficiency, no need for water cooling, a small footprint, and the ability to adjust output power from 100 to 10% with no effect on beam pointing or quality. In addition, OPSL enables an ultra-low noise spec of <0.1% (10Hz to 100MHz) for this UV laser.
Applications for the Genesis CX 355 STM Compact include flow cytometry for cell sorting and counting, and other fluorescence-based life sciences instrumentation such as confocal microscopy and high throughput drug discovery.
Other models in the Genesis family offer output power up to 250 mW.