Services

Cutting/Dicing

Onyx can cut and dice Adhesive-Free Bond (AFB®) composite YAG and AFB® composite YAG/sapphire components, as well as other material combinations. We can cut and dice waveguiding structures, passively q-switched microchips, and others.

In-House Machine Shop

Onyx is fully outfitted with its own in-house machine shop, which supplies custom-manufactured tooling for our various manufacturing processes. The ability to have project-specific tooling fabricated on the premises aids in the efficient manufacture of our AFB® optical components.

Laser Scribing, Grooving, and Cutting

We have the ability to provide laser scribing, grooving, and cutting for AFB® components, allowing for serialization or other identification inscriptions. A range of characters, as well as varying scribe widths and depths, are available. This service is applicable to a wide range of electro-optic materials, including diamond.

Measurement Capabilities

Onyx has many in-house measurement capabilities, including:

  • Measurements to sub-micron accuracies
  • 0.3 - 3 µ spectrophotometer tracing (full and narrow range scans) for absorption coefficient determination
  • Phase and wavelength shifting interferometry for measuring surface figure and parallelism
  • Stress birefringence measurements

Mechanical properties

  • Fracture strength with sample preparation according to ASTM C1161-02c by four-point bending with full documentation and Weibull analysis on Onyx-prepared samples
  • Equi-biaxial fracture test according to ASTM C1499-05
  • Elastic modulus of laser crystals and optical ceramics by precision interferometric strain measurement with complete documentation
  • Fracture toughness of customer supplied material
  • SEM of grain sizes and grain size distribution of optical ceramics
  • Laser marking, scribing, and cutting

Thermal properties

  • Thermal conductivity as function of temperature at near room temperature and above for crystals or glasses
  • Thermal conductivity as function of temperature at liquid N2 or above for crystals or glasses
  • Thermal conductivity of AFB® composites of crystals or glasses at room temperature or liquid N2, useful for evaluating heat transfer coefficient between doped and undoped or differently doped crystals or glasses
  • Heat transfer between AFB® crystal or glass composites with optical coating at interface at room temperature or liquid N2

Optical properties

  • Refractive index at 1.55 µm: ±0.0003
    This measurement is useful for designing AFB® waveguides and can be performed with crystals intended to be used for fabrication
  • Difference in refractive index at 1.55 µm between e.g. doped and undoped components, useful for waveguide designs, with an accuracy of ±0.00002
  • Surface finish through non-contact measurement: ±0.4 Å rms
  • Surface figure in presence of Fizeau internal fringe patterns
  • Transmitted wavefront at 633 and 1550 nm
  • FTIR measurements of infrared materials, up to 14µm
  • Micro-Raman spectroscopy

Polishing

Onyx is well-equipped with polishing capabilities, as polishing is a critical aspect of our AFB® process. We can provide optical finishing for our AFB® composites and offer polishing services for non-composites. Specific capabilities include component thicknesses to tens of microns and barrel polishing of rods. Our polishing averages 2-3 Å surface roughness.

Raman Spectroscopy

Onyx can employ Raman spectrophotometry in order to identify molecular species, such as the differentiation of the graphite and diamond species. Two laser sources (532nm and 325nm) are available for excitation with a micro-Raman capability, with spectral resolution of 0.3 cm-1; spatial resolution of < 1 µm; and objectives of 10X, 50X, and 100X.

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

We offer stereoscopic observation for the inspection of component defects and damage sites. We have magnifications ranging from 20 –10,000X with a greater depth of focus and higher magnification than conventional microscopy. No sample preparation is required.

X-Ray Orientation

Onyx's x-ray equipment allows us to quickly and accurately measure the orientation axes of crystalline materials. This is a useful tool as verification during incoming inspection, as well as for confirming crystals with non-standard orientations. It is also helpful in the design of our AFB® Walk-Off Corrected (WOC) composites.