Menhir Photonics MENHIR-1550 Oscillator

Key Features of the MENHIR-1550 Series Femtosecond Laser Source

• Ultra-low noise femtosecond fiber laser designed for demanding photonics, metrology, quantum optics, optical communications, and frequency comb applications.
• Telecom-band operation at 1555 ± 10 nm, covering the 1545–1565 nm wavelength range for compatibility with standard C-band fiber optic systems.
• Transform-limited soliton pulses below 250 fs for clean ultrafast pulse delivery and high temporal precision.
• Flexible repetition rates from 100 MHz to 2.5 GHz, with standard configurations including 216 MHz, 250 MHz, 400 MHz, 1 GHz, 1.25 GHz, 2 GHz, and 2.5 GHz.
• Available as oscillator-only or amplified femtosecond laser system, with the MENHIR-1550 delivering >50 mW average power and the MENHIR-1550+ offering up to 2 W average power.
• High peak power up to 4 kW and pulse energy up to 1 nJ with the amplified MENHIR-1550+ configuration.
• Excellent timing stability with timing jitter <30 fs from 1 kHz to 10 MHz, supporting precision timing distribution and ultra-low noise microwave generation.
• Low amplitude noise performance with <1% over 1 hour and <0.05% from 1 Hz to 10 MHz for stable long-term operation.
• High-quality TEM00 output beam with M2 <1.05 for excellent spatial mode quality.
• Linear polarization with PER >23 dB, providing a polarization extinction ratio greater than 200:1 for polarization-sensitive applications.
• Fiber-coupled PM FC/APC or free-space optical output for flexible integration into laboratory, industrial, and OEM optical systems.
• Compact industrial all-in-one design with no external control unit required, simplifying installation and integration.
• Turnkey, self-starting operation with warm-up time under 10 seconds from cold start for fast system readiness.
• Designed for continuous 24/7 operation, making it suitable for industrial deployment, automated test systems, and long-duration experiments.
• Passively air-cooled architecture for low-maintenance operation without the complexity of water cooling.
• Harsh-environment resistant design engineered for reliable operation in demanding laboratory, industrial, and OEM environments.
• Low power consumption, with <10 W for the oscillator version and <50 W for the amplified version.
• Broad spectral bandwidth greater than 10 nm at -3 dB, supporting ultrafast pulse applications and frequency comb generation.
• Optional frep and fCEO actuators available for frequency comb stabilization and precision metrology applications.
• Optional RF output for synchronization, timing reference, and microwave photonics applications.
• OEM-ready femtosecond laser platform with custom repetition rates, analog interface, digital interface, and integration-friendly mechanical design.
• USB and RS232 digital interfaces plus analog signals for status, trigger, alarm, interlock, and power modulation.
• Space-grade version available for advanced aerospace, satellite, and ruggedized photonics applications.
• Ideal for quantum optics, THz generation, optical communication, timing distribution, frequency combs, ADC systems, and ultra-low noise microwave generation.

Applications of MENHIR-1550 Series Femtosecond Laser Sources

• Optical Frequency Combs: Ideal for generating low-noise, 1550 nm frequency combs for precision metrology, optical clocks, spectroscopy, carrier-envelope offset stabilization, and frequency referencing.
• Quantum Optics and Quantum Technologies: Suitable for quantum photonics, entangled photon generation, single-photon experiments, quantum frequency conversion, and low-noise timing references for advanced quantum systems.
• Optical Communications: Enables high-repetition-rate femtosecond pulse generation for coherent optical communications, wavelength-division multiplexing research, ultrafast telecom testing, and 1550 nm photonic system development.
• THz Generation and Detection: Provides ultrashort, transform-limited pulses for terahertz generation, THz time-domain spectroscopy, photoconductive antenna excitation, and nonlinear crystal-based THz systems.
• Precision Timing Distribution: Excellent for ultra-low jitter optical timing distribution in large-scale scientific facilities, accelerator synchronization, radio telescope timing networks, and high-precision instrumentation.
• Ultra-Low Noise Microwave Generation: Supports photonic generation of low phase-noise microwave and RF signals for radar systems, communication links, frequency synthesis, and timing-critical electronic systems.
• Analog-to-Digital Converter Clocking: Suitable as a low-jitter optical clock source for high-speed analog-to-digital converters, electro-optic sampling, photonic ADC systems, and precision signal acquisition.
• Femtosecond Seed Laser for Fiber Amplifiers: Can be used as a reliable 1550 nm seed source for erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, chirped pulse amplification systems, supercontinuum generation, and custom ultrafast laser platforms.
• Nonlinear Optics: Supports nonlinear frequency conversion, supercontinuum generation, soliton dynamics studies, four-wave mixing, optical parametric processes, and ultrafast nonlinear fiber experiments.
• Ultrafast Spectroscopy: Well suited for pump-probe spectroscopy, time-resolved spectroscopy, coherent spectroscopy, transient absorption measurements, and ultrafast material dynamics research.
• Photonic Integrated Circuit Testing: Useful for characterizing silicon photonics, indium phosphide photonic circuits, modulators, waveguides, frequency comb chips, and high-speed optical components operating near 1550 nm.
• LiDAR and Ranging Research: Applicable to eye-safe 1550 nm LiDAR development, precision optical ranging, time-of-flight measurement, coherent ranging, and frequency-comb-based distance metrology.
• Metrology and Precision Measurement: Enables high-accuracy optical frequency measurement, dimensional metrology, calibration systems, interferometry, and phase-stable optical reference generation.
• Microwave Photonics: Suitable for RF-over-fiber systems, photonic signal processing, optical frequency division, microwave synthesis, high-speed modulation experiments, and low-noise RF generation.
• Scientific Research Laboratories: Provides a turnkey, self-starting femtosecond laser platform for universities, national laboratories, and R&D facilities requiring reliable 24/7 ultrafast operation.
• OEM Ultrafast Laser Integration: Designed for integration into industrial, medical, aerospace, defense, and scientific instruments requiring compact size, robust operation, low noise, and stable femtosecond pulses.
• Space and Harsh-Environment Photonics: With available space-grade and ruggedized options, the MENHIR-1550 series is applicable to satellite photonics, aerospace timing systems, remote sensing payloads, and field-deployable optical systems.
• Optical Sampling and Electro-Optic Measurement: Supports high-speed optical sampling, electro-optic waveform measurement, ultrafast detector characterization, and precision temporal diagnostics.
• Biomedical and Multimodal Imaging Research: Applicable to advanced imaging techniques requiring femtosecond pulses at telecom wavelengths, including nonlinear microscopy development, OCT research, and multiphoton excitation studies after suitable wavelength conversion.
• High-Speed Detector and Component Testing: Useful for testing photodiodes, optical modulators, high-speed receivers, telecom components, and ultrafast optoelectronic devices.