OptiGrate

If you work with lasers anywhere in the world, you are familiar with OptiGrate Corp., a Central Florida company drastically improving the way light-based machines operate.

The company manufactures a component – a bit of glass – that makes lasers more precise and proficient. The growing business helps create high-tech employment positions, which strengthens the region’s economy. In three years, it doubled in size to more than 30 employees – including eight with PhDs and 10 with master’s degrees. Today, it has 400 customers across six continents.

Thanks to OptiGrate and its partnership with the University of Central Florida, the region has become a hub for laser technology.

“We are pretty much unmatched in the world,” said Alexei Glebov, OptiGrate president and CEO, and son of the company’s founder. “We can make holographic optical elements much better than anybody else.”

What Does OptiGrate Do?

At this point, resign yourself to this fact: Unless you have a profound knowledge of physics, you will not understand what the company produces. Nevertheless, OptiGrate’s glass bits, known as volume Bragg gratings, permit lasers to be of precise frequencies and properties to perform eye surgery; cut and weld automobile parts; and, sniff out explosives in airports. These components improve laser performance, aid laser miniaturization, and reduce laser costs used for medicine, pharmacology, and defense. The uses for these products are expanding.

OptiGrate is one of a dozen companies created by technological discoveries at the UCF and fostered to profitability in its business incubators. Approximately 130 businesses have been established, creating hundreds of jobs and pumping millions into Central Florida’s economy.

“破坏ive technology,” explained M.J. Soileau, vice president for research and a professor of optics at UCF. “The technology offers the foundation for a new line of laser products. It gives people the ability to create innovative products. This technology is the first out of the block.”

Strategic Partnerships

Soileau came to UCF in 1987 to direct the Center for Research in Electro Optics and Lasers (CREOL). His research history and contacts led Soileau to Leonid Glebov, a Russian scientist who accomplished cutting-edge work within the field in the 1970s. Soileau and Glebov met in St. Petersburg, Russia and formed a fast friendship based on their scientific interests.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Glebov moved to the United Sates and worked at Ford Motor Company. When Glebov decided to re-enter the academic field, Soileau capitalized on an opportunity to bring Glebov to UCF where he found support for his scientific work. By 1999, he had developed the technology and founded the company that became OptiGrate. The university benefitted from the partnership financially and enhanced its reputation as a research institution.

“The UCF optic program is one of the top three in the country,” Soileau stated.

2008年，Glebov的儿子Alexei招募了他在硅谷的工作中招募了公司。高级Glebov仍然落在UCF的教师上，定期在研究资助的研究资助中绘制超过100万美元。

“There is nobody else that does Glebov’s work,” Soileau said. “I do not think he has a lot of peers.”

它是如何工作的......用于假人的光学物理

The heart of the technology is a method to produce a piece of glass in which the molecules are aligned to produce a filter for light. This glass filter forms a laser of a pure frequency or color.

二氧化硅，用在特殊过程中模制的添加剂的混合物，在玻璃中产生图像，如全息图滤除激光。结果是更好的光学滤波器，光束导向器和激光器。

The foundation for the technology was developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Glebov and his colleague, Vadim Smirnov, started the Florida company to commercialize the technology. With projects from NASA and the military funding much of the initial research, Glebov was the first to commercialize this process and its products.

When OptiGrate’s technology was ready for market, UCF utilized its highly developed business incubator system to help Glebov build a viable company. The UCF incubator program helps scientists handle business aspects such as finding real estate, setting up an office, and maintaining utilities – simple skills often overlooked by physicists.

“我们给了很多护理和喂养，”罗伊德解释道。“公司经常来临帮助资金研究。”

OptiGrate has assisted UCF by raising research funds and building awareness of laser-based companies that might need its products.

下一代

年轻的Glebov在俄罗斯圣彼得堡赢得了他的硕士学位。1992年，他离开俄罗斯为德国赢得了固体物理和应用物理的博士学位。他于新泽西州的朗讯技术开始了一个工业生涯，并在加利福尼亚州工作了18岁。

“I am a Silicon Valley boy,” Glebov said.

In 2008, he was called in to run OptiGrate.

“光子学仍然很小，”Glebov说。“公司需要与工业背景的领导。这就是为什么爸爸把我带到这里。我从另一边看到了这个行业。我是商务人士。“

当美国经济挣扎时，Optigrate蓬勃发展。它每年增加30％，并通过进入新建筑来加倍工作空间。

“我们正在扩大在不同的市场中，”Glebov说。“我们年复一年的利润增加了。”

His father’s title with OptiGrate is now vice president of research and development, but the senior scientist splits his time between the company and UCF, where he teaches and conducts research.

“He brought this technology, pushed the limits, and made it fit the requirement for commercialization,” the younger Glebov said. “No one else in the world can do such work. We are working on finding new markets and new applications. We are still at the beginning. It can easily grow ten times in the next few years. My expectations are very optimistic.”