Epoxy-Free Bonding
Key Features
- Adhesive-free bonding of coated or uncoated surfaces
- Wide range of materials including YAG, Nd:YAG, SiC and sapphire
- Zero thickness bondline (no wedge, no scattering, no absorption)
- Suitable for high power solid state laser assemblies
By removing the "black art" from the optical bonding process, we are able to offer our patent-pending Chemically Activated Direct Bonding™ (CADB®) optical bonding technology. CADB results in epoxy-free optical paths that are 100% optically transparent with negligible scattering and absorptive losses at the interfaces - the zero thickness bondline features no residue, no wedge and no outgassing. It offers bond strengths often times equal to the strength of the bulk materials being bonded, thus is exceptionally durable, reliable and resistant to temperature and humidity. CADB can be used with or without our (IBS) ion-beam-sputtered dielectric thin film coatings to produce high energy laser optics and solid state laser components such as polarizing beamsplitter cubes, microchip lasers and wave plates. In-house shear testing ensures production control and quantitative comparison data when using CADB on new materials and material combinations.
PPC epoxy-free products and components:
Microchip and Thin disk lasers
Beamsplitter cubes
Planar waveguides
Air-gap etalons
Zero-order waveplates
Laser rods with endcaps
Custom monolithic assemblies
Why is CADB® better than diffusion bonding and optical contacting?
See our article "Optical Fabrication: Optical contacting grows more robust" in Laser Focus World."