THE NEW ALCOR 1064NM 5W FEMTOSECOND LASER FOR MULTI-PHOTON MICROSCOPY!

The ALCOR laser series from SPARK Lasers just received a nice power boost! This series, offered in a dual 920nm and 1064nm wavelength configuration up to 2W, or a single wavelength configuration with up to 4W at 920nm (highest power 920nm fs laser on the market), now expands it's offerings to 5W of power at 1064nm! The new ALCOR 1064-5W is the ONLY femtosecond laser offering such a high average power with a fixed wavelength at 1064 nm, and it has the very same low-SWaP form factor as the rest of the ALCOR series.

Alcor - GDD PrecompensationSuperior Performance!

This 5W 1064nm version provides excellent pulse characteristics, offering >62nJ of pulse energy at a fixed repetition rate of 80MHz (40MHz also available), with a pulse duration of <130fs, for a peak pulse power of >480kW! The extremely high peak power of the ALCOR 1064-5W provides better brightness and contrast for your 2-photon microscopy application. This version comes standard with GDD precompensation from 0 down to -30,000fs^2 (others optional), conveniently tunable from the laser's user interface. With negative GDD precompensation applied in the laser head, pulse duration is kept the same from laser output to beam excitation on the cells/tissues, despite any optics that would induce dispersion on the pulse. The ALCOR series also provides a 'clean pulse' by minimizing side lobes to avoid any thermal effect around the treated cell. SPARK Lasers specifically designed and developed the ALCOR 1064-5W for larger surface imaging for multi-photon microscopy, allowing a higher level of brilliance and contrast for two-photon excitation of calcium indicators such as GCaMP of other red opsins (RCaMP).

The ALCOR 1064-5W can be optionally equipped with the XSight, fully-integrated electronics module, for power adjustments and modulation. By itself, this laser has no power modulation, and can only operate in alignment mode or full power mode, with no intermediate power levels. Adding the optional XSight module allows for precise control with fine power adjustment by percentage of total power, fast gating with TTL signal (<1µs response time), fast power modulation with analog signal (<1µs response time), and power adjustment of the modulated signal, all through either the GUI or serial communication protocol. ALCOR XSight

ALCOR 1064-5W - Key Features:

5W Average Power @ 1064nm (>480kW peak)

80MHz (40MHz optional)

>62nJ pulse energy with <130fs pulse width

GDD precompensation from 0 down to -30k fs^2

XSight External Module for 920 or 1064nm - Features:

>4.2W Average Power (with ALCOR 1064-5W)

Fine Power Adjustment

Fast gating with TTL signal (<1µs response time)

Fast power modulation with analog signal (<1µs response time)

XSight Modulation-1

Fast TTL Gating

XSight TTL Gating-1

Fast Power Modulation

SPARK Lasers offers another optional, external module: the ALCOR FLeX Fiber with power control and fiber delivery, which is compatible with the 1W and 2W, 920nm and 1064nm configurations.

FLeX Fiber External Module for ALCOR 1W/2W, 920 or 1064nm - Features:

Wavelength: 920nm or 1064nmALCOR FLeX Fiber

Repetition rate = 80 MHz

Average power > 1 W

Pulse duration < 120 fs

Fiber length= 2 m

GDD precomp. from 0 to -20000 fs²

Single mode fiber: stable and clean output beam profile

Linear polarization

Fast power modulation < 1 μs response

Air-cooled

A Small Sampling of Successful Applications Utilizing the ALCOR 2W with 920nm and 1064nm:

SPARK vs CoherentImage courtesy of Dr. Yoonha Hwang & Dr. Howon Seo at IVIM Technology and KAIST

ALCOR 920 2W GCaMP6s

ALCOR 920 2W HuC-H2B-GCaMP6s

Check out this articles precursor, titled "Advantages of Two-Photon Microscopy Utilizing Femtosecond Fiber Lasers" for a detailed breakdown of the advantages of using femtosecond fiber lasers over older, outdated Ti:Sapphire lasers.