Quantum Cascade Lasers by Alpes Lasers

Alpes Lasers is a Swiss engineering company pioneering advanced light sources, especially Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) used in various applications such as gas detection.  The cascade laser is a semiconductor laser. It has the property of emitting in the wavelength range of the mid- and far- infrared. It can thus emit between 4 and 15 microns with very high reliability. It is impossible to arrive at these levels by standard laser diodes and it is very inefficient with conventional lasers that operate at cryogenic temperature.

Due to very specific needs of customers, Alpes Lasers has very few recurring sales, as each case of detection requires a special laser. In the early years Alpes Lasers was able to sell developments, however, it is no loner possible. It is the R & D part of the company that allows Alpes Lasers to be extremely agile to meet the many needs. The public funds allowed Alpes Lasers to finance development. That is why the company reached out to platinn Swiss innovation platform for coaching.

Under the supervision of Dr. Rudolf Fryček, the coaching was done on two levels: (1) communication to partners of potential projects, which brought the company to the Horizon 2020 project WaterSpy, (2) assisting to writing of EUROSTARS project proposals. According to Dr. Fryček, “Alpes Lasers has an indisputable capacity to innovate and to personalize its offer. There is an opportunity to address promising segments to move towards the industrialization stage of the company. European projects can help Alpes Lasers by sharing the risk in terms of technologies, markets or partners. New market opportunities for QCLs are emerging. In the era of the Internet of things, one can expect the growing interest towards chemical and biochemical sensors for which the technology controlled by Alpes Lasers could prove to be decisive.”

Click HERE for the full interview in French.