News

The EPFL Xplore student association at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), has spent the previous year developing a rover to participate in the International Mars Rover Challenges. As a student association that focuses on Space Sciences and Exploration, multidisciplinary sciences and techniques meet under one roof towards the aim for actual space exploration and additions to the scientific world.

The Argos Project was the first one of this kind from EPFL Xplore, as the model began in September 2020 and had its first attempt at the European Rover Challenge in September 2021. With competition requirements such as collecting samples, object manipulations, retrieval and delivery apart from the task of traversing rough terrain combined with enviromental analysis, and the team managed to place in the top, makes us proud to be a partner through the support of a Cobolt 08-NLD 785 nm 120 mW. The Cobolt laser is part of a Raman spectroscopy set-up to help identify signs of life and water on Mars.

At the international ERC (European Rover Challenge) in Poland they managed to place 3rd in the overall competition out of 58 international participating teams. Apart from 3rd place, they also revieved 1st place in Science, as well as Probing. With student-designed mechanisms and algorithms, we are excited to see where we might find them in a few years time, possibly becoming a bridge between the academic enviroment and the scientific and technical industry of tomorrow.

Argos has proven that a team of dedicated students can go from nothing to having an operational exploration rover in less than a year.

– EPFL Xplore on the Argos Project

Well done!

We’re excited to be able to share another new editorial! This time in PhotonicsViews magazine Dec 2021/Jan 2022 issue, called “Lasers for compact and fast LIBS systems” and written by Elena Vasileva and Mélina G. Gatty. We delve into their insights on how the use of compact, self-contained, pulsed lasers expand the capabillities in LIBS applications, especially for metal identification.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an atomic-emission spectroscopy technique that enables rapid chemical analysis of a wide range of materials, including metals, semiconductors, glasses, biological tissues, plastics, soils, thin and paint coatings. The technique relies on focusing short high-energy laser pulses onto the surface of a target sample, which in turn generates a plasma containing a small amount of the sample (typically, a few nanograms).

Read how our compact and air-cooled Cobolt Tor™ XE 1064 nm laser was used for metal analysis using the LIBS technique.

Visit PhotonicsViews Dec2021/Jan2022 (Vol 18, Issue 6) to read the entire editorial!

This work has been conducted in collaboration with Swerim AB.

After a year and a half of no in-person events or exhibitions, we’re jumping for joy to be able to meet you, our customers, and exhibit at the Great Scientific Exchange, SciX, conference on Sept 26-29 in Rhode Island, PI, USA.

Meet our USA Sales office and see all the lasers live! Lasers for Raman spectroscopy, single line or in a C-FLEX laser combiner, as well as pulsed lasers for LIBS. Drop by booth 124 to talk lasers with us. See you there (Image from pre-COVID)!

As seen in BioOptics magazine August 2021 edition

Read about how our Cobolt Rogue laser is being used for single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM). A novel system solution which involves just a single laser is enabling SMLM with multicolor imaging.

A special thanks to our collaborating author Dr Valentina Caorsi, Product Manager of the Instrument Section at Abbelight SAS and our own Dr Håkan karlsson CEO at Cobolt AB, a part of HÜBNER Photonics.