Laser Glass - Meeting Customer’s Challenging Specifications

L3Harris excels at eye-safe laser glass fabrications that require innovative production techniques, including small-batch melting and pouring, making us a leading manufacturer specializing in processing glass for a wide array of industries within global markets. L3Harris’ specialty eye-safe laser glass materials are doped with specialty rare-elements Erbium, Ytterbium and other elements based on the end user application for the laser glass.

In addition to the laser glass, L3Harris designs and manufactures its own Q-switch material.  Q-switching is a method for generating intense short pulses, generating high-peak laser power. This proprietary cobalt-doped glass provides our transmitters with the added advantage of using self-made material where a rare and expensive crystal is usually used. Using this proprietary glass for Q-switching allows our transmitters to remain cost-competitive with the added bonus of controlling material quality.

Our artisanal process allows L3Harris to create small-batch, custom laser glass to meet the specifications needed by our customers. Our process allows us to be agile - our engineers and technicians work to analyze the requirements and end-user information to formulate glass for a specific application.

“Our core team of experts have great communications skills, outstanding technical knowledge and world-class experience,” said Dhwani Trivedi, General Manager, Imaging and Laser Systems, L3Harris. “We have an in-house lab that tests and verifies the quality of our glass, making sure that what we produce meets or exceeds our customers’ needs.”

L3Harris' glass has the properties to support the broad spectrum of output energy, high-repetition rates and conductive properties to capture and distribute laser light for range finding, imaging, illumination tracking and targeting applications. Our glass efficiently absorbs and uniformly transfers diode-pump laser light into a single mode, eye-safe lasing wavelength.

One use for the glass is inside L3Harris laser range finders. Laser range finders use high peak power laser light sources for accurate, long-range distance measurements. A laser designator provides the user target information to know where ordinance seeking such information should be aimed. L3Harris makes compact, low-profile laser designators for users demanding high performance in a compact, ruggedized package. In addition, we manufacture laser designators for man-portable, small gimbal vehicles, airborne and UAS applications.

The glass is an integrated component of L3Harris laser transmitters. Our laser transmitters produce improved beam quality with more efficiency while providing the critical accuracy our customers need. Our laser transmitters are compact, high efficiency and offer a wide operational temperature range with no moving parts or any active cooling requirements.  L3Harris’ dedicated engineering team supports your project’s design and integration requirements.

Our advanced laser range finders are optimized to reduce size, weight and power. Enhanced by diode-pumped technologies, they are optimal solutions for airborne, land and sea applications. L3Harris glass and transmitters supply external customers around the world and also internal L3Harris products such as WESCAM's MX-15, MX-20, MX-10; our naval application Mk-20 as well as our Naval SPEIR solution - SPATIAL and other specialized EO applications.

At L3Harris, our in-house processes, highly-skilled staff development and custom-batch manufacturing techniques allow tailored solutions for the most challenging laser glass specifications. Leveraging more than our vast experience, L3Harris is the premier provider for your toughest laser glass and laser transmitter challenges. “Innovation is in our DNA and drives the work we do for our customers,” said Trivedi.

When navigating challenging specifications, L3Harris anticipates customers’ demands and delivers innovative solutions – quickly and flawlessly. If you want to work with talented and empowered engineers, manufacturing professionals and creative individuals who shape the art of the possible – check out our Career page.