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Market Opportunities of Radio Frequency Gallium Nitride (RF GaN)

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound of nitrogen and gallium. It is a semiconductor with a direct bandgap of group III and group V elements. Since 1990, it has been commonly used in light-emitting diodes. The structure of this compound is similar to that of wurtzite, and it has a very high hardness. The bandgap of gallium nitride is quite wide, being 3.4 electron volts, and it can be used in high-power and high-speed optoelectronic devices. For example, gallium nitride can be used in violet laser diodes, which can generate violet (405 nm) laser light without the use of a nonlinear semiconductor-pumped solid-state laser.

The Development and Prospect of the Industrial Laser Market at Home and Abroad

The research and development of lasers is moving towards the directions of high intelligence, high power, high beam quality, high reliability, low cost, and all-solid-state.

Laser precision machining and micro-machining technologies will be the key development focuses. Their further promotion and application in industries such as electronics, semiconductors, telecommunications, optical storage, micromachining manufacturing, biology, and the environment will create unprecedented possibilities for traditional processing methods.

The automation, integration, and intelligence levels of laser processing continue to improve. On the basis of integration with industrial robots, multi-dimensional processing such as three-dimensional welding, marking, and cutting can be achieved. The applicability and application fields of laser technology are constantly expanding.

The application of laser technology in the industry is already ubiquitous, and new laser technologies are emerging continuously. Ultrafast lasers are becoming industrial lasers, and the market is about to experience explosive growth. Direct semiconductor lasers are entering the application market of solid-state lasers. Laser 3D printing is developing rapidly, and many key issues remain to be broken through. The combination of photons and semiconductors will give rise to the next generation of optoelectronic technologies. Optoelectronic technology has become the pillar supporting economic development in the next 30 years. Intelligence and "Made in China 2025" will bring dividends to the laser industry.

The prospects of the global industrial laser market are promising

The market research firm Transparency Market Research predicts that the global industrial laser market will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6% during the period from 2017 to 2026. As a high-speed and efficient processing method for various materials, a wide variety of lasers are demonstrating their capabilities in all walks of life. The emergence of innovative technologies continuously drives the development of industrial lasers, and manufacturers are introducing advanced industrial lasers into more end applications. For example, the continuous breakthroughs in fiber laser technology are playing a crucial role in the development of the global industrial laser market.

The consumer electronics industry is also expected to drive the sustainable growth of the industrial laser market. Various lasers, including solid-state lasers, CO2 lasers, fiber lasers, and disk lasers, are being widely used in various industrial fields on a large scale.

One of the greatest advantages of fiber lasers is their high reliability and flexibility compared with other types of lasers. Global manufacturers are developing fiber laser products with higher power and equipped with nanoscale sensors to achieve better processing results.

Great breakthrough has been achieved in the research and development of China's ultra-intense and ultra-short laser experimental device!!

According to relevant researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the SULF laser device adopts the technical route of chirped pulse amplification based on large-aperture titanium sapphire crystals. The researchers have solved key scientific and technical problems such as large-aperture high-gain laser amplifiers, high-performance laser pumping sources, precise control of broadband high-order dispersion, and suppression of gain narrowing. For the first time in the world, they have achieved broadband (with a full width at half maximum reaching 70 nanometers) laser amplification output at an energy level of more than 300 joules.

The titanium sapphire crystal used in the 10-petawatt laser main amplifier has a diameter of 235 millimeters and was independently developed by the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics. This is the first time in China that a laser crystal with an aperture exceeding 200 millimeters has been successfully developed and used for laser amplification. It is also the laser amplification crystal with the largest known aperture internationally at present.

The highest energy of the nanosecond-level chirped pulse output by the titanium sapphire main amplifier reaches 339 joules. After being compressed by the pulse compressor, the width of the laser pulse reaches 21 femtoseconds. The efficiency of the compressor is 64%, and the highest peak power of the compressed laser pulse can reach 10.3 petawatts, which is the highest known peak power of a laser pulse at present.