NKT Photonics A/S, the industry leading manufacturer of low noise, single frequency Koheras fiber lasers, and TeraXion, a leading-edge manufacturer of ultra stable frequency-stabilized lasers, are proud to announce that a laser system at 1556 nm developed from their joint technologies has successfully been incorporated as a master clock in the world’s largest and most powerful radio astronomy telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. The ALMA Master Laser, a frequency-stabilized laser built by TeraXion, includes a NKT’s Koheras Boostik OEM Fiber Laser module.
TeraXion and NKT Photonics joined their skills to achieve this world premiere: the unrivalled coherence length of the Koheras Boostik coupled with TeraXion’s expertise in laser frequency stabilization and industrialization of complex optical systems gave birth to a rugged laser system constantly providing a stable laser signal. This system was also built to sustain harsh nvironmental conditions, for example when earthquakes occur, a test that it successfully passed during the Antofagasta region’s earthquake of the 20thof June 2011, ranking 6.5 on the Richter scale.