Plymouth Grating Laboratory chosen by French research giant CEA

CARVER, Massachusetts I September 1, 2016 – Plymouth Grating Lab, a leading manufacturer of meter-class, high-performance diffraction gratings, announced that it was awarded a major multiyear contract to supply the French Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA) with state-of-the-art transmission gratings for its Megajoule  Laser (LMJ) facility.

The CEA (or Commissariat a l’energie atomique et aux energies alternatives) recently began operation of its LMJ facility to study the behavior of materials under extreme conditions similar to those reached during nuclear fusion reactions. Because the intensity of laser light is so high in this advanced system, conventional optics can be readily damaged. PGL’s gratings were selected because of their ability both to withstand such high intensities and to precisely direct and shape large beams of light.

“PGL’s unique technology based on Scanning Beam Interference Lithography (SBIL) not only enables us to produce very straight lines uniformly across large substrates, but also has the  flexibility to write curved lines to focus light down to a point or line,” said Douglas Smith, PGL’s founder and CTO. CEA is using the gratings to steer high-power infrared beams of the light, and to focus the light into the target chamber after it is converted to an ultraviolet wavelength.

PGL has been developing these customized gratings for CEA for several years. “We are excited to now be delivering volume production batches of these state-of-the-art gratings,” said Turan Erdogan, PGL’s new president.  According to the LMJ schedule and demand, CEA will purchase, gratings in production volumes through 2021.

About Plymouth Grating Laboratory – PGL first commercialized the state-of-the-art Scanning Beam Interference Lithography (SBIL) technique pioneered at MIT to enable production of meter-class multilayer dielectric (MLD) diffraction gratings with exceptional uniformity, high laser damage threshold, and low stress in extreme conditions such as in vacuum. The company then expanded its technology to include metallic reflection gratings, transmission gratings, two­ dimensional gratings, and even focusing gratings that comprise curved lines. PGL gratings are used for pulse compression in the world’s largest ultrahigh-intensity lasers as well as in compact, commercial femtosecond lasers, and for demanding metrology and spectroscopy applications. PGL products make a difference in the Scientific Research, Industrial (Materials Processing), Medical, and Analytical Instrumentation markets. The company occupies 20,000 sq. ft. of dedicated manufacturing, engineering, and office space in Carver, MA, just outside of Plymouth and about 45 miles south of Boston.