GoPhotonics interviewed Dr. Ben Szutor, the CEO of Skylark Lasers. Ben Szutor joined Skylark Lasers in 2018 as a Research Engineer before being appointed as company CEO in 2023. He leads the business in the global roll-out of Skylark Lasers’ unique monolithic compact DPSS laser technology. Embedded in the UK photonics community, Ben has been recognized for his contributions to developing ultra-narrow linewidth DPSS lasers for quantum applications and aims to commercialize the technology that will drive the quantum revolution.

Q. Can you give us a brief history of Skylark Lasers? When was the company formed and what was the objective?

Ben Szutor: Skylark Lasers is a leading-edge photonics company specializing in the development and production of CW single-frequency C-DPSS lasers. Founded in 2013, our team of highly qualified laser and optoelectronics engineers continue to push the capabilities of our laser technology – delivering higher output powers from a compact footprint.

Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, we are key players in the UK photonics cluster and drive the continued miniaturization and commercialization of compact laser systems.

Guided by our core values, we collaborate with our customers and research partners to understand their needs and tailor our lasers to their applications. Our technology unlocks new possibilities for our customers – helping them reveal the unseen, detect the imperceptible, and measure the unknown.

Q. Can you tell us about your product portfolio? What types of laser products do you develop?

Ben Szutor: We design, develop, and manufacture single-frequency continuous wave compact diode-pumped solid-state lasers with ultra-stable performance and high output powers.

The Skylark Lasers core portfolio of single frequency CW C-DPSS lasers offers wavelengths at 320, 349, 532, 640, and 780 nm. We also develop lasers for quantum research and sensing applications.

Q. What market segments do you cater to? Which segment is the largest for you? Which Industry/Application do you feel will grow the most to become significant in the next few years?

Ben Szutor: We primarily cater to customers in Raman spectroscopy, holography, interferometric lithography, photoluminescence, flow cytometry, and quantum applications. Raman spectroscopy and holography have been our largest customer segments over the last decade, but continued investment and development in the quantum space will revolutionize the enabling technology needed to commercialize quantum solutions and disrupt how we live, work, and innovate. We know that quantum sensing will accelerate advancements across navigation, communication, exploration, environmental monitoring – and much more.

Q. Can you tell us more about your unique optical architecture?

Ben Szutor: Our integrated monolithic technology enables us to produce the highest output power on a small footprint. Our goal is to combine the good of two worlds: the superior optical properties of solid-state lasers with the small form-factor, high-efficiency operation of diode lasers. With our proprietary NX opto-mechanical platform we can create robust and repeatable lasers covering a wide range of the wavelength spectrum. Our technology enables high levels of repeatability, demonstrated by a startup repeatability of less than 3 GHz on our wavelength specification. We also demonstrate robust operation with an intensity drift of less than 2% over a 15°C temperature change.

The technology delivers narrow-linewidth operation, with a typical linewidth of 200 kHz, and wavelength drift of less than 20 MHz over 24 hours of operation. Solid-state laser technology also provides high spectral purities with a side-band attenuation of over 70 dB, which has important implications in reducing background noise and increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in many applications.

Due to significantly lower power consumption and simplified thermal management, our lasers provide improved output power scalability from a remarkably small footprint.

Q. What drove your product portfolio's emphasis on CW single-frequency DPSS lasers? Are you looking to develop other types of lasers as well?

Ben Szutor: Our mission is to deliver the purest form of light to our customers through a high-power, ultra-stable compact laser system that enables the most demanding research and development applications.

We are constantly looking at new possibilities with our main focus being integration and miniaturisation. We’ve received excellent feedback from our customers, which drives our progress in developing systems for high-demanding applications.

We continue to develop ultraviolet lasers to extend our existing portfolio of compact solid-state lasers and our quantum research aims to deliver laser products at particular atomic resonances to enable the commercial rollout of these emerging technologies.

Q. Can you tell us more about the lasers that are used in Quantum Applications? What should users look for when selecting a laser for such an application?

Ben Szutor: Quantum applications usually require the highest amount of precision in the output properties of a laser product. The laser wavelength has to be fine-tuned to an exact atomic resonance, but in many applications, absolute referencing is not sufficient and our customers require tunability and adjustability around these references. Lasers used in QT are spectrally pure, with a narrow linewidth, and high long-term stability, furthermore, there is a focus on suppressing baseline noise to create true spectrally pure sources. These applications might require additional features such as intensity modulators to create precisely timed pulses of laser emission. In other cases, the lasers are referenced externally to pure spectroscopic samples, in which case the electronics and optics have to work together to stabilize the laser frequency to better than 1 in 1010.

Q. Do you offer a standard set of lasers, or can you customize them based on user’s requirement?

Ben Szutor: Our standard portfolio of lasers can be tailored to suit the demands of our customers’ applications – including fine-tuning laser specifications and offering additional accessory options such as cooling, fiber coupling, edgepass filters, power scaling, and external power modulation.

Q. Who are your customers and where are they located? What is the % break up by region?

Ben Szutor: We deliver laser solutions to academic institutions, research labs, and industrial customers all over the world.

• Europe 40%
• APAC 30%
• US 20%
• ROW 10%

Q. What does 2023 look like for Skylark Lasers? Are there any new products on the horizon?

Ben Szutor: 2023 is all about commercial expansion with our products being shipped all around the globe, and tested in industrial and OEM applications. Whilst this is a challenging period, it enables us to fine-tune our systems and make even more robust and reliable products for our customers.

About Skylark Lasers

Skylark is a leading-edge photonics company specializing in the development and production of CW single-frequency DPSS lasers. Their proprietary BRaMMS Technology® platform delivers outstanding spectral performance with some of the highest output powers in the market. The lasers are designed for various demanding applications, including Raman Spectroscopy, Brillouin Scattering, Holography, Metrology, Flow Cytometry, Microscopy, and Quantum Technology.