Telecom Lasers

This is a Notice of Proposed Contract Action under RFO Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Products and Commercial Services.  This notice is for information only; a solicitation will not be issued. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTATION. No contract will be awarded on the basis of offers received in response to this notice. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 334516 with a small business size standard of 1,000 employees.
 

The Government requires the procurement of telecom lasers, and intends to negotiate a sole-source award for this requirement with Toptica Photonics 1120 Pittsford Victor Rd, Pittsford NY 14534. Relevant Toptica Photonics part numbers and product descriptions are as follows:

Item 1, qty. 2 each—Part # DLC CTL 1550 FD3 S, Continuous Tunable Laser with all digital control electronics. Specifications:

-Tuning: 1510-1630 nm, no mode-hops

-Output power: >11 mW over the range

-Isolation: >60 dB over the range

-Max scan speed: 10 nm/s

-Absolute wavelength accuracy: <150 pm

-Relative accuracy (repeatability): <10 pm

-Typical instantaneous linewidth: 0.3 kHz

-Typical short term linewidth (5 us): <10 kHz

-Motor micro step size: 0.5 pm

-Piezo scan: up to 33 GHz

-Piezo step size: <5 kHz

-Output beam characteristics: TEM00, typ. Between 1mm x 1 mm and 1 mm x 3 mm

-Low power consumption: typically 50 W

Laser head includes

· Hands-off diode laser newly designed for widest mode-hop-free tuning (patented)

· Integrated laser diode

· Special optical isolator for protection across the full tuning range without realignment

· FD3 Fiber Delivery with 3m PM AR fiber

Fiber coupling efficiency typically > 50%

at gain maximum.

AR coated fibers should not be used for

physical contact (PC) coupling.

· Motor- and piezo scanning always mode-hop free

· Fast current modulation (AC & DC coupled)

DLC pro electronics include

· Lowest noise and drift & high resolution

current, temperature and piezo drivers

· Flexible control by integrated CPU & FPGAs for

intelligent features: scanning, signal display,

locking*, relock*, FFT, power stabilization etc.

· some features (*) are optionally available with

the article DLC PRO LOCK

· Wide scan mode with synchronized data recording

for spectroscopy and component testing

· 7" capacitive touch display together with

four rotary knobs for comfortable and

efficient front panel control

· Graphical PC user interface as well as command

based (TCP/IP) interface for remote control

The Government has determined that other companies' products and services do not meet or cannot be modified to meet the Government's needs.  The required telecom lasers require frequency linewidths as small as possible for both (a) quantum microwave-optical transduction and (b) fiber interferometer locking and stabilization. These lasers must be frequency-tunable so that they can be interfaced with devices operating at device-specific frequencies. The Toptica laser offers a tunable wavelength range of 1510-1630 nm, an extremely narrow instantaneous frequency linewidth of 0.3 kHz, and an average short term linewidth of < 10 kHz. Furthermore, these lasers are compatible with a suite of Toptica lasers that are located in existing AFRL laboratories.

Interchanges with Toptica Photonics have yielded that they are the sole manufacturer of the required items and do not maintain a network of resellers for their products.  Accordingly, the Government has determined Toptica Photonics to be the sole-source provider of the required telecom lasers as detailed above.

This is a notice of proposed contract action and not a request for competitive proposals; however, all responsible sources may submit a capability statement or proposal, which shall be considered by the agency. All inquiries should be sent by email to brooke.mcdonald@us.af.mil. Responses must be submitted by the date/time listed on the notice. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government in future procurements.

Responses received will be evaluated; however, a determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The Government anticipates an award date on or before 30 August 2026.

A Sole Source Justification will be attached to the subsequent Notice of Award in accordance with applicable regulation.