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Downloadable Media:

oscillator datasheet
griffin-5 stability video .AVI (24MB)
griffin-5 stability video .MPG (7MB)

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Griffin™ Ti:sapphire Laser Oscillator

The Griffin™ series offers flexibility with simplicity: functioning either as robust hands-off laser oscillators, or as flexible research tools with real-time computer-controlled adjustment of wavelength and bandwidth.

The Griffin <10fs Ti:sapphire lasers include single-box turn-key systems with integrated pump lasers.  Griffin oscillators have applications in spectroscopy, microscopy, terahertz, OCT, harmonic generation, laser machining, amplifier seeding and more. Our oscillators are compact, user-friendly and economical.

Along with an internally integrated pump laser, the Griffin-3 through Griffin-10 Series also includes an internally integrated spectrometer and power monitor, motorization of the spectral and temporal control, and a laptop control computer. This single-box system is a compact, 83cm wide x 41cm deep x 14cm high.

If you already own a suitable pump laser or prefer to use a larger pump laser, KMLabs also offers the Griffin as a separate package without pump laser or diagnostics.

Griffin Series Features:

•  Flexible and simple optical design
•  <10fs to 25fs – user-adjustable in real time
•  700 to 900nm center wavelength – user-adjustable in real time
•  3nJ to 10nJ per pulse for 3W to 10W pump power
•  80MHz to 100MHz repetition rates available
•  Incl. a divide-down TTL synchronized output with divide-by integers between 2 and 32
•  Remote motorized control of the center wavelength and bandwidth

Custom Griffin Oscillator Specifications:

KMLabs excels in building custom laser systems. Please let us know your target in pulse energy, spectral bandwidth, center wavelength, and repetition rate, and we will work with you to create a laser with your target needs.

Griffin Electronic and Computer Control:

Full computer control of the spectrum and bandwidth is included with every laser system. With our newly-improved electronics, both of the prisms and a spectral tuning slit are all individually controllable by toggling a single, USB control knob. This knob provides fine-touch adjustment, making it easier than ever to produce the specific spectrum that you desire.

Every Griffin also includes a TTL pulse train signal and an adjustable, divided TTL signal. The divided signal provides a synchronized pulse train with a repetition rate as low as ~3MHz. This is useful when synchronizing electronics to your laser. For example, 3MHz is within easy triggering range of standard delay generators.

Benefits of Prism-based Dispersion Compensation:

Intra-cavity prisms provide control of your spectrum - the bandwidth, the center wavelength, and even some control of the spectral shape. Without prisms (i.e. with chirped mirror compensation) the user has no control of this parameter space, without replacing optics. So, if the lab environment changes, causing the laser spectrum to shift, this cannot be corrected without prisms. With prisms, a very small change in the translation of one of the prisms will recover the required spectrum.

Bandwidth requirements differ by application.  With a prism-based femtosecond laser, narrow or broadband operation is available from a single laser.  By simply translating one prism, bandwidth can be varied by a factor of two or more.  A laser without prisms produces a fixed bandwidth, so the only option for varied bandwidth is to implement lossy extra-cavity spectral components. So, in a cavity without prisms there is significant energy loss when narrowing the spectrum.  In a prism-based cavity, pulse energy will not decrease as the spectrum is narrowed.

Griffin Wavelength Options:

•  Standard: Center wavelength tunable from 750nm to 840nm
•  Option-750: Center wavelength tunable from 700nm to 760nm
•  Option-850: Center wavelength tunable from 840nm to 900nm

Griffin CEP Stabilization Options:

For customers interested in carrier envelope phase (CEP) stabilization, KMLabs offers the Griffin-I oscillator.  This oscillator is well-suited to stabilization, employing feedback control of the laser cavity's breadboard temperature, mechanical isolation of the breadboard from the outer housing, and additional stiffening of the breadboard. These features make the Griffin-I the ideal choice for stabilization applications and/or harsh environments. Beginning with the Griffin-I, KMLabs also offers a complete Carrier Envelope Phase Stabilization system including a piezo-mounted intra-cavity mirror for CEP control and the Menlo Systems XPS800 system for monitoring the CEP.  For the Do-It-Yourself customer, KMLabs also offers the Griffin-I with the piezo-mounted intra-cavity mirror but without the XPS800 system. For customers interested in repetition rate stabilization or RF synchronization, allowing one to slave the oscillator to an experiment, or to another laser oscillator, please refer to the Halcyon oscillator. 

Griffin Accessories:

•  EPPR: Prism pair for extra-cavity dispersion compensation for the Griffin Series.
•  PER-R-532: Polarization rotating periscope for rugged pump delivery.
•  PER-M-532: Polarization maintaining periscope for rugged pump delivery.
•  PER-ENCL: Simple enclosure and beam tubing for the KMLabs periscope.