Ultrafast Lasers Market - Forecasts from 2020 to 2025

The global ultrafast lasers market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 18.96% to reach US$4,014.968 million by 2025, from US$1,416.695 million in 2019

Ultrafast lasers are the ultra-short pulse of light with a broadband optical range and have a variety of applications. The ultrafast laser market growth is primarily driven by the increasing demand for material processing and semiconductor industries that in turn find their applications in several end-user industries like automotive, communication and technology, consumer electronics as well as healthcare. Moreover, advances in the ultrafast laser market are projected to open new avenues of applications outside its core application of micromachining. For example, in 2019, an ultrafast pulsed laser was used to melt ceramic materials using less than 50 watts of laser power making it even more preferable method than the current welding methods that necessitate heating various parts in the furnace. This also sheds light on the solutions to challenges of welding ceramics because they need an extremely high temperature to melt which leads to cracking.

Key developments that are contributing to the sustenance of the ultrafast lasers market are the different strategies that are being adopted by major players of the sector

• In October 2019, an announcement was made by Thorlabs and KMLabs, pertaining to the acquisition of Y-Fi™ portfolio - a family of high average power, high repetition rate NIR/MIR ultrafast fiber lasers, OPAs, and NOPAs. KMLabs’ ytterbium fiber lasers are known to provide short pulse durations at the microjoule level. The Y-Fi laser series finds its application in various ultrafast applications which are inclusive of ophthalmology, 2- and 3-photon imaging, and time-resolved studies in the NIR and MIR. This acquisition will also allow Thorlabs to pair the Y-Fi OPA laser with its Bergamo microscopes to offer complete 3-photon imaging solutions.
• Earlier in February 2019, a product named FemtoLux green which is a compact femtosecond fiber laser was launched by EKSPLA - a manufacturer of solid-state lasers, laser systems, and optoelectronics that are intended for basic research and industrial applications. This product is specifically intended for R&D use and industrial integration that are inclusive of but not limited to applications like marking of some kind of materials, multiphoton polymerization, nonlinear microscopy, silicon and sapphire scribing, volume modification of transparent materials as well as the writing of fiber Bragg gratings. All such applications require sufficient pulse energy and beam quality which this product can reportedly deliver.
• In February 2019, the ALCOR 920 – a one-of-a-kind femtosecond fiber laser that offers 2W at 80 MHz high quality linearly polarized output beam and almost transform-limited sub-140 fs pulses in a volume 30 times smaller than conventional ones, was launched by Spark Lasers. France based Spark Lasers is a developer of compact picosecond and femtosecond lasers, which are intended for applications pertaining to biophotonics and micromachining and primarily caters to the needs of industrial companies and scientific researchers. Besides the aforementioned, aspects like air-cooling, high-stability and low-maintenance makes this newly launched product ideally suited for challenging two-photon microscopy applications.
• Further in June 2019, Tangor 300 – a brand-new high-performance laser with pulse width less than 500 femtoseconds and power reaching 300 W was launched by Amplitude Laser, an international specialist in ultrafast lasers intended for industrial, medical and scientific applications. Furthermore, this product is capable of supplying 1000µJ per pulse and a repetition rate of up to 40MHz and can cover a surface of 100mm² per second. This newly launched ultrafast laser is primarily intended for machining.
• Also due to the multifarious application, in which ultrafast laser has become crucial, in 2019, NKT Photonics a leading supplier of high-performance fiber lasers, fiber optic sensing systems, and photonic crystal fibers which makes its services available to markets within imaging, sensing and material processing, expanded its facilities in Shenzhen, China, to establish a full Sales, Service and Support Center. This strategic decision has been made with the focus on catering to the need for reliable, high-performance industrial lasers and solutions, servicing a wide range of industrial applications in precision manufacturing and marking that is an integral part of microelectronic, semiconductor, medical device markets.
• With regards to the application, in 2019 the laser team of Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH attained an optical power of 20 kilowatts with laser technology based on the spectral coupling of 12 fiber lasers supplied by NKT Photonics. The aforesaid 12 individual beams from the laser fiber modules are coupled to form a single combined beam via a high-precision dielectric grid. Thus, as of present Rheinmetall now possesses the 20-kW beam guidance module and the 20-kW laser weapon station all other relevant main assemblies needed for a modular scalable 20 kW class laser weapon system suitable for ground, air, and naval battle scenarios. Further, both the entities are poised to create 100 kW volume and power-optimized laser sources reportedly within the next two years.

Therefore, from the aforesaid product launches and expansion, it is evident that there is a growing interest in research and development on ultrafast laser technologies as well as increasing geographical reach of developers in previously untapped markets. Further with acquisitions like that of UK based Laser Quantum, which is a world-class manufacturer of high quality solid-state and ultrafast laser sources by US-based Novanta, a trusted technology partner to OEMs in the medical and advanced industrial technology markets along with extensive propriety expertise in photonics, vision and precision motion technologies, in 2018 indicates the growth in the medical laser application segment is highly anticipated during the forecast period augmented by increasing research and development.

Segmentation:

By Type

• Diode-Pumped Lasers
• Mode-Locked Diode Lasers
• Titanium- Sapphire Lasers
• Fiber Lasers

By Pulse Duration

• Femtosecond
• Picosecond

By Applications

• Research
• Spectroscopy and Imaging
• Medical Processing
• Others

By Geography

North America

• USA
• Canada
• Mexico

South America

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Others

Europe

• UK
• Germany
• France
• Others
• The Middle East and Africa
• Saudi Arabia
• Israel
• Others

Asia Pacific

• Japan
• China
• India
• Others