We support TOPAS and ORPHEUS parametric modules and PHAROS, CARBIDE and FLINT femtosecond lasers, including the legacy TOPAS generation. Call us when output has collapsed, the tuning range has narrowed, or the module is no longer a current product. Written findings before any repair, and nothing proceeds without your approval.
Light Conversion is a Lithuanian manufacturer and a leading supplier of tunable ultrafast sources to academic research. The company states over 2000 TOPAS units installed worldwide and around 10,000 femtosecond systems in the field.
Two dates from its own published history matter for service. The TOPAS dates to the mid 1990s, and the US sales and service center opened in 2006. The earliest units in American laboratories are therefore around thirty years old.
The current catalog position is worth checking against your own label. The Ti:Sapphire-pumped OPA line now lists TOPAS-PRIME, TOPAS-PRIME-HE and TOPAS-TWINS. The earlier generation, including TOPAS-C, TOPAS-800, TOPAS-white and TOPAS-SHBC, is not among the current products.
We have not located a published end-of-support notice for the earlier TOPAS generation, so catalog absence is an indicator rather than a manufacturer statement. Ask Light Conversion what they will do for your serial number, and ask us what can be done independently. Light Conversion lists its own USA and Canada service center, LIGHT CONVERSION-USA, Inc., in Bozeman, Montana; PhaseX is independent, in Parsippany, New Jersey, and works on these modules at component level.
We provide independent service and repair support for the families below. What a specific system needs is settled by its configuration, its parts access and the measurements the project requires, and we confirm that with you before anything ships.
Send us your configuration and we will confirm the scope. On parametric modules the crystal set, the stage hardware, the calibration path and the pump pairing matter far more than the family name, and we settle both at the enquiry stage rather than after you have paid to crate the module.
This is the most useful thing we can tell a laboratory with a Light Conversion OPA problem, and it can save a shipment.
A parametric module depends on four pump properties at once: energy or average power, pulse duration, beam quality, and timing relative to the seed. A drift in any one of them can collapse the output with nothing wrong inside the module.
Our evaluation covers the pump as its own subsystem, separately from the module, before any statement is made about the crystal, the stages or the tuning. That measurement is what separates a module fault from an upstream one.
In practice a TOPAS or ORPHEUS is pumped by a Ti:Sapphire amplifier or by a PHAROS or CARBIDE, and the pump is where the fault usually is. An amplifier that has lost pulse energy, or whose compressor has drifted and lengthened the pump pulse, or whose beam quality has degraded, will present at the experiment as an OPA problem. A module can look faulty when the pump feeding it is the subject, which is why both sit inside the evaluation scope rather than one being assumed.
The full treatment is on the OPO and OPA page, and the pump side is covered on the femtosecond laser page.
Energy, pulse duration, beam quality or timing. The pump is a separate subsystem from the module it feeds, and a module can present as faulty when the pump is the subject. Both are inside the evaluation scope.
In TOPAS and ORPHEUS designs, the continuum generation medium and the focus into it. A degraded or damaged generation medium removes the seed, and therefore the output.
Spatial and temporal overlap, and the mechanics that set it. Adjustable, recoverable, and among the most common real faults inside the module.
Crystal angle or temperature, and whether the working condition can still be reached across the intended range. Frequently recoverable by mapping rather than by replacement.
Stages that will not move, move without tracking readback, or have lost their home position. Cheap to fix, and a common cause of apparent tuning-range loss.
On these modules the wavelength request is mapped onto hardware positions by a calibration table. A corrupted or lost table presents as a tuning fault with entirely healthy hardware.
Surface and bulk damage, coating degradation, and contamination on crystal faces and separation optics. Genuine, and less common than assumed.
Where a NirUVis, DFG or SH or FH extension is fitted, its own crystals, ovens and separation optics, and whether the fundamental reaching it is healthy.
Crystal ovens, TEC loops, sensors and drivers in temperature-tuned designs.
Controllers, stage drivers, supplies, communication interfaces and the control software path including LabVIEW and MATLAB integrations.
Send the model, a photograph of the product label and the symptoms. We review it and respond with the next step.
Every job runs on a written scope. What that scope covers, what you receive at each point and who approves what are set out below, and nothing moves past your written approval.
Every engagement names its measurements before it starts. PhaseX defines and provides the measurement capability the project requires. Depending on the system and the question being answered, that is owned, rented or qualified third-party measurement resources arranged as required. The evaluation proposal states which measurements will be made, by what method, and where each one comes from, together with the acceptance criteria the work is judged against.
| Measurement | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| Drive current against command | Whether a commanded setpoint reaches the driver and produces real current, which separates a control-path fault from an optical one |
| Supply, rail and protection behavior | Rail integrity under load, sequencing, and protection states that cap output without reporting anything |
| Timing, trigger and switching | Trigger and synchronization paths, driver and Pockels cell switching, and pulse-train structure |
| Optical power and pulse energy by wavelength | Real output at each wavelength on a defined and terminated path, with the detector, wavelength response, attenuation and measurement point stated |
| Optical pulse presence and repetition rate | Whether an optical pulse train exists at all, and its relationship to the trigger |
| Spectral condition | Emission wavelength and bandwidth, and confirmation that the light being measured is the light assumed |
| Beam and mode condition | Spatial condition of the output, and evidence of optic, fiber or alignment damage in the delivery path |
| Thermal behavior under load | Cooling loops, TEC and oven control, and thermal derating that presents as a silent power limit |
| Pulse duration and beam quality | Specified where the project requires it, and performed with the measurement resource identified in the proposal |
In-house instrumentation currently includes a RIGOL MHO984 oscilloscope and a Joulescope JS320 for electrical, current, timing and pulse-train work. Optical metrology is specified per project and provided through owned, rented or qualified third-party measurement resources arranged as required and named in the proposal. We do not publish an equipment inventory in place of a measurement plan, and we do not offer manufacturer-equivalent calibration or certification to original published specifications where the original acceptance data and the corresponding standards are unavailable.
Parametric modules are harder to evaluate in isolation than any other subsystem, because their behavior is defined by their pump. Wherever it is possible, send the pump with the module.
If the pump cannot be released, tell us at the enquiry stage. We will say whether a module-only evaluation answers your question, and where it does not we will tell you that instead of taking the shipment.
We receive systems from outside the United States, including from Canadian universities and research institutes. We provide the commercial documentation a repair shipment normally requires and coordinate with your shipping office. Customs classification, duties, temporary import treatment and clearance timing remain the sender's responsibility, and we do not give customs guarantees.
We service the TOPAS and ORPHEUS families, and the legacy TOPAS generation is a generation that is no longer a current product. We are not a Light Conversion authorized service center, we hold no affiliation with or endorsement from the manufacturer, and the names are used here only to identify equipment. Contact us to confirm your specific configuration before shipping anything.
Light Conversion's current Ti:Sapphire-pumped OPA catalog lists TOPAS-PRIME, TOPAS-PRIME-HE and TOPAS-TWINS. The earlier generation, including TOPAS-C, TOPAS-800, TOPAS-white and TOPAS-SHBC, is not among the current products. We have not found a published end-of-support notice, so treat catalog absence as an indicator rather than a manufacturer statement, and ask the manufacturer directly what they will still do for your serial number before assuming either way.
Not from that symptom alone. A parametric device cannot produce more than the pump delivers, and it is sensitive to pump energy, pump pulse duration, pump beam quality and pump timing at the same time, so a pump amplifier that has lost energy or whose compressor has drifted will collapse OPA output with nothing wrong inside the module. The pump chain and the parametric module are both inside the evaluation scope, and the written findings name which one the fault sits in.
Light Conversion's own company history dates the TOPAS to the mid 1990s, and the company states over 2000 TOPAS units installed worldwide. Their US sales and service center opened in 2006, which means roughly a decade of US TOPAS deliveries predate any US service presence. That is a large, old and geographically dispersed installed base.
We are direct about the work we take on, so we are equally direct about the two boundaries.
If your system is still inside its manufacturer warranty, use the manufacturer, or get written authorization from the seller first. Our work is out-of-warranty and legacy equipment, which is where the support gap sits in any case.
Class 4 work is planned and executed under a project-specific laser safety plan. The required engineering controls, personal protective equipment, beam management and facility conditions are defined in writing before any energized optical work begins, and the infrastructure that plan calls for is provided within the project scope. Where a laboratory's own controls are involved, final hazard analysis and approval stay with the institution's LSO or EHS function.
PhaseX Laser Services is an independent third-party service provider, not affiliated with or authorized by any manufacturer named on this page unless expressly stated in writing. Brand and model names identify equipment only.
Manufacturer material used for the family, history and installed-base statements on this page. Where our reading of a document differs from the configuration in front of us, the physical equipment governs.
Pump energy, pulse duration and beam condition at the module input decide whether the problem is inside the parametric module at all. Send whatever numbers you already have and describe how they were taken. If you do not have them, say so, and we will work out what is needed at the enquiry stage.
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