Raydiance Inc.

Raydiance Inc., headquartered in Petaluma, California, is the maker of the world’s first software-controlled ultrashort pulse (USP) laser. [Burrows, Peter. “Is This Really The Next Big Thing?” BusinessWeek, June 4, 2007. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_23/b4037063.htm] The company was established in 2004 by Barry Schuler, former CEO of America Online (AOL), who commercialized a fiber-based USP technology first developed in the laboratories of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. [Van Dyke, Kim. “Raydiance: Welcome to the ‘Light Age.’” Photonics.com. Feb. 4, 2008. http://photonics.com/content/companyProfiles/2008/February/4/90467.aspx] Raydiance introduced its first product, a desktop-sized picosecond pulse laser, in 2007. Ultrashort pulse lasers, which generate pulses in the picosecond to femtosecond range, are being used for applications in the life sciences, micromachining,imaging and diagnostics, and defense sectors.