The award winning technology is an ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser. The laser technology is used for multiphoton microscopy, which has helped in the research of degenerative diseases and with many other areas of medicine. At a desired point, two photons add together lighting up a dye that has been added to the sample. This allows the user to see neurons firing, observe drug uptake, and track tropical diseases enabling exploration of tissue samples to depths that wouldn't have been accessible before.
The benefit of the technology is that researchers no longer need to have expertise in operating the laser. In the past, research centres required a physicist present in order to operate and maintain the laser. Now with the automated, hands-off system, biologists can concentrate on their research without having to worry about operating the laser.
Coherent's manufacturing facility in the UK has a staff of over 100 people, four times the number of employees in 2000, with 22 of those current members being PhD qualified. As this facility is one of Coherent's manufacturing centers, Coherent is creating jobs in local areas for physicists, due to the complex construction techniques used. Speaking to Electro Optics, Chris Dorman, Vice President - General Manager for Coherent's facility in Scotland, said on the topic of the company's many links with universities: 'We exist because of those physicists coming out of the universities and we are using that to make some of the most innovative laser products in the industry.' The company has also generated more than £100 million since the year 2000.
The IOP Innovation Awards are a free to enter competition where the winners are granted a space to display their product at the institute's public exhibition. It is given in recognition of UK companies' commercial achievements through the application of physics.