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Presentation1 · Wayne Mefferd, Bob Rorden, John Cullen and Steve Jarrett. Gerry Barker. Our First...
Transcript of Presentation1 · Wayne Mefferd, Bob Rorden, John Cullen and Steve Jarrett. Gerry Barker. Our First...
May, 1966
Coherent Radiation Laboratories The First Two Years
The Beginning
• Two guys from S-P wanted to start their own company- Gene Watson and Jim Hobart
• Dupont ( the chemical company ) wanted to be in the instrument business
• Coherent had nothing proprietary so Dupont started with a $15k/mo “research “ contract
• Four other members of founding group hired-Wayne Mefferd, Bob Rorden, John Cullen and Steve Jarrett
Gerry Barker
Our First Laser
• 75 W carbon dioxide laser• Power meter for the laser• Perkin Elmer had a similar laser in the field• S-P had not entered field - tried to develop a
“ Z “ tube laser for a laser band saw• Our prototype made 15 W for a month- but
we demonstrated and delivered on time
“The Kluge”
Band Saw
Dot Farrand et al
White Light Krypton Ion Laser
• Watson and Hobart had early plans for ion laser development- had offered Bridges, Bell and Goldsborough jobs
• Holotron, a subsidiary of Dupont, contracted with CRL to build 2 “ white light “ krypton ion lasers
• Holotron had a portfolio of holography patents and money
What’s Wrong With Ion Lasers
• Very inefficient• Water cooling• 3-phase power• Destroy their own gas discharge structures• Periodic, expensive plasma tube
replacement
What’s Right With Ion Lasers
• High, Watt level power• Multiple wave lengths• High quality beam characteristics• Unique light source in 1966- He-Ne laser
limited to one visible wave length at 100 mW
How To Build Ion Lasers
• DC arc discharge• RF discharge• Insulating plasma confining structure-
quartz, BeO• Segmented plasma confining structure-
graphite, W, Mo
How To Choose
• RF• Rempel,
Goldsborough and Bell are very smart guys
• No electrodes• Simple fused quartz
tube
• DC• Much simpler, more
efficient PS• Plasma conditions and
laser power the same• Why does fused quartz
work in an RF discharge and not in DC ?
Graphite disk
Proto ion laserK
A
Management Matters
• Hobart organized a trip to Ed Labuda at Bell Labs instead making a decision in a vacuum
• Watson brought in Earl Bell one midnight to look at dc ion laser
• Watson then made contact with Leo Cronin at Spectra-Mat for cathode development
• Hobart hired Gerry Barker to join ion laser development
W dispenser cathode- in line
Mefferd Solves Problem
• How do you hold bore sections in place ?• Use difference of CTE of fused quartz and
graphite • Shrink fused quartz around each bore
section
Some Wonderful Things Happened
• Single frequency operation with high efficiency with an etalon in cavity-ideal for holography
• High power at many wave lengths revolutionized Raman spectroscopy
• Ideal for eye surgery, photocoagulation
photocoagulator
Mode locked pulse
Life Gets Interesting
• Dupont pulls out for internal reasons- we had gained “ spending momentum “
• Our management became divided- Watson leaves
• We had a financial crisis- Cullen leaves• The “ green eyed monster “ showed up in
the guise of an S-P BeO plasma tube
Refinanced
• Watson sells Coherent to Venrock before he leaves
• Three legged stool-company employees, Venrock and local investors ( Asset Management , Pitch Johnson )
• Robert Noyce joins board- co-inventor of the IC, founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel
BeO disk
Cu graphite BeO
Normal Design of BeO Tube
Credit card validator-Argon laser
Nd:YAG Laser
Thanks