History & Milestones

2013

Demonstrated novel VBG technology for high efficiency spectral beam combining (SBC) of fiber and diode lasers.
Delivered to customers Chirped Bragg gratings providing stretching time up to 1-nsec.
Demonstrated first narrow line 795 nm SEOP Laser Diode system with 60W linearly polarized output power and wavelength and linewidth tuning capability.
Commercial monolithic Raman notch filters with OD>5 at 532 and 633 nm.

2012

OptiGrate opened a new, state of the art, Volume Bragg grating (VBG) manufacturing facility in Oviedo, FL.
Received the 'Small Manufacturer of the Year' President's award from the Manufacturers Association of Central Florida.
Our BragGrate™ Pulse with stretching time exceeding 500 ps became commercially available.

2011

OptiGrate is named as a “50 Florida Companies to Watch” award winner.
We demonstrated our first monolithic multi-band Notch filter with 99.9% Optical Density at two different wavelengths.
First 2.5 um BragGrate™ Pulse elements are successfully manufactured and deployed.
Achieved world’s first monolithic laser with our volume Bragg gratings consisting of Nd, Er, and Yb doped Photo-Thermo-Refractive (PTR) glass.
OptiGrate delivered KW-class DPAL pump units with 10 GHz line width.

2010

Launched full product line of ultra-narrow band BragGrate™ Raman filters with wavelengths from 488 to 1064 nm.
Our first monolithic Notch filter with >99.999% and bandwidth <10 cm^1 at 785 nm was produced.
Photo-Thermo-Refractive glass with an absorption rate lower than 1x10-4 cm-1 at 1 micron was demonstrated.

2009	100x100 mm2 high energy laser target boards in PTR glass was manufactured. OptiGrate was awarded NASA and U.S Air Force funding to develop fiber laser technologies. World's first 200W laser diode module with 20 pm line width was made.

2008

Dr. Alexei Glebov joined OptiGrate as President and CEO.
We demonstrated our chirped Bragg grating based femtosecond pulse compressor with 90% efficiency.
Produced high efficiency gratings with 60x60 mm2 lateral dimensions.
U.S. Navy awards OptiGrate with funding to produce ultra-short pulse laser (USPL) stretcher and compressor technology.

2007

First 30W VBG- Laser was built with 10 GHz linewidth.
OptiGrate introduced volume Bragg grating filter with a 20 pm spectral width.
New glass fabrication facility was opened in Orlando, FL.
OptiGrate’s volume Bragg grating passed 20 kW laser radiation test.
First UV volume Bragg grating was demonstrated at 390 nm with 90% efficiency.
We launched our BragGrate™ Combiner product for kW-class spectral beam combining.
OptiGrate developed our PTR glass technology with 100 mm lateral dimensions and absorption of 3x10-4 cm-1 at 1 micron.

2006	Achieved an absolute diffraction efficiency of 99.7% in VBG. Created our first high efficiency gratings with 35x35 mm2 lateral dimensions.

2005	New, high-tech holographic facility is opened in Orlando, FL. OptiGrate received its first volume order for VBG’s.

2004	Reflecting Bragg grating filter with diffraction efficiency >99.999% was made. OptiGrate was awarded Phase II STTR Government contract. Initial chirped Bragg grating compressor for ultra-short pulse lasers was built.

2003	The core patent for our platform technology was issued. Discovery of non-linear photosensitivity of the PTR glass to visible radiation.

2002	OptiGrate received its first commercial order for reflecting Bragg gratings for Laser Diode (LD) stabilization system. We demonstrated our first successful reflecting Bragg grating based tunable filter.

2001	First demonstration of spectral and angular narrowing and stabilization of diode lasers with volume Bragg gratings as a part of a program funded by the Department of Defense. We discovered the third harmonic generation in VBG’s.

2000	We were awarded an exclusive license for our platform technology from the University of Central Florida. OptiGrate received its first U.S. Government contract.

1999	OptiGrate demonstrated VBG’s with 98% diffraction efficiency. Light Processing and Technologies Inc. was established in Orlando, FL (AKA OptiGrate).