OptiGrate

What OptiGrate does

OptiGrate Corp, founded in 1999 in Oviedo, Florida, manufactures Volume Bragg Gratings (VBGs) and related holographic optical elements from its proprietary photo-thermo-refractive glass, marketed as BragGlass™. The company's product portfolio spans Reflecting, Transmitting, and Chirped Bragg Grating configurations sold under the BragGrate™ brand, including mirrors, notch and bandpass filters, spatial filters, combiners, deflectors, tuners, and pulse stretchers/compressors, plus complete SEOP laser systems and quantum-optics filters. Underlying technology uses holographic recording of phase volume diffractive gratings in PTR glass, producing world-record diffraction efficiencies above 99.9%, spectral selectivity as narrow as 20 pm, apertures up to 50×50 mm², laser damage thresholds of 40 J/cm², and operating temperatures up to 400°C.

The company operates a B2B, quote-based custom manufacturing model, selling to laser manufacturers, spectroscopy OEMs, defense contractors, quantum technology developers, and medical/scientific imaging organizations across more than 600 customers on six continents. Distribution combines direct enterprise sales with international representatives in Japan, China, and South Korea, supplemented by an active trade-show presence at Photonics West, DAMOP, Optica Quantum, SciX, and BiOS Expo. Pricing is custom per specification (grating type, resonant wavelength, diffraction efficiency, dimensions) and structured as multi-year contracts. OptiGrate became a wholly-owned subsidiary of IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ: IPGP) in May 2017, expanded into a new 50,000 sq. ft. facility in 2023, and remains led by founder/Prof. Leonid Glebov (CTO) and Dr. Alexei Glebov (CEO since 2009).

Name

OptiGrate

Legal name

OptiGrate Corp

Website

https://optigrate.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

OptiGrate Corp, an IPG Photonics subsidiary based in Oviedo, Florida, manufactures proprietary Volume Bragg Gratings and holographic optical elements from BragGlass™ photo-thermo-refractive glass for laser, spectroscopy, defense, quantum, and medical imaging customers worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Oviedo

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. VBG Components and Optical Elements: OptiGrate generates revenue through the manufacture and sale of Volume Bragg Grating-based holographic optical elements including mirrors, notch filters, bandpass filters, spatial filters, deflectors, combiners, tuners, and pulse compression components. Products are sold in various configurations with different specifications based on customer requirements.
2. SEOP Laser Systems: Complete laser systems for Spin Exchange Optical Pumping, Diode Pumped Alkali Laser, and related applications, including power supply, temperature controller, chiller, software interface, and optional fiber delivery.
3. Custom Manufacturing: Custom manufacturing services where OptiGrate designs and manufactures gratings to customer specifications including resonant wavelength, diffraction efficiency, dimensions, and other parameters.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

OptiGrate designs and manufactures Volume Bragg Grating (VBG) based holographic optical elements (HOEs) in proprietary photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass, sold under the BragGrate™ brand. The portfolio includes mirrors, notch and bandpass filters, spatial filters, combiners, deflectors, tuners, pulse stretchers/compressors, and quantum filters, plus complete SEOP laser systems. Products are sold as custom-specification hardware to industrial laser manufacturers, spectroscopy instrument makers, defense contractors, quantum technology developers, and medical/scientific researchers across more than 600 customers on six continents.

Product overview

OptiGrate is a manufacturer of Volume Bragg Gratings (VBGs) offering a comprehensive portfolio of holographic optical elements (HOEs) for laser, spectroscopy, quantum, and defense applications. The product line is organized around three main VBG configurations—Reflecting Bragg Gratings (RBG), Transmitting Bragg Gratings (TBG), and Chirped Bragg Gratings (CBG)—manufactured in proprietary BragGlass™ photo-thermo-refractive glass. The core product family includes BragGrate™ Mirrors for laser mode selection, BragGrate™ Pulse for ultra-short pulse stretching/compression, Notch and Bandpass Filters for Raman spectroscopy, Spatial Filters for beam cleanup, Combiners for spectral beam combining, Deflectors for angular magnification, Tuners for wavelength stabilization, and Quantum Filters for quantum optics applications. The company also offers a complete SEOP Laser system and a proprietary BragGlass™ glass material. In 2017, OptiGrate was acquired by IPG Photonics Corporation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BragGrate™: Trademarked product line for volume Bragg gratings (VBG) produced by refractive index modulation in photosensitive BragGlass™. Includes mirrors, notch filters, bandpass filters, spatial filters, combiners, deflectors, tuners, and pulse stretchers/compressors.
• BragGlass™
• Quantum BragGrate Filter
• SEOP Laser

Products and services

• BragGrate™ Mirror Reflecting volume Bragg grating (RBG) for laser mode selection and diode laser wavelength locking, enabling spectral and thermal management of laser radiation with bandwidth down to 10 GHz. Sold to laser manufacturers requiring spectral and thermal stabilization.
• BragGrate™ Pulse Chirped Bragg Grating (CBG) based product for stretching and compression of femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses in Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) and Ultra-Short Pulse Laser systems. Targets laser manufacturers and research institutions.
• BragGrate™ Notch Filter Ultra-narrow-band notch filter for ultra low-frequency Raman spectroscopy, reflecting light with bandwidths as narrow as 5 cm-1 while maintaining up to 95% total transmission for other wavelengths. Sold to spectroscopy and analytical instrument manufacturers.
• BragGrate™ Bandpass Filter Reflecting Bragg grating (RBG) for spectral filtering and laser spectral noise cleanup with bandwidth as narrow as 50 pm in visible and near IR regions. Sold to spectroscopy and analytical instrument manufacturers.
• BragGrate™ Spatial Filter Reflecting volume Bragg grating for spatial filtering to clean up laser beams from imperfections, providing up to 30 dB spatial noise suppression. Sold to laser manufacturers and integrators.
• Quantum BragGrate™ Filter (QBF) Reflecting Bragg grating for quantum optics applications with bandwidths of 10, 25 and 50 GHz in a spectral range between 600 and 2500 nm. Sold to quantum computing and quantum communication developers and research institutions.
• BragGrate™ Combiner Transmitting or reflecting volume Bragg grating for Spectral Beam Combining (SBC), combining laser radiation from multiple sources into a single near-diffraction-limited beam. Sold to high-power laser system integrators and defense contractors.
• BragGrate™ Deflector Transmitting volume Bragg grating for angular selection and magnification, enabling spectrally selective beam steering with deflection angles up to 45 degrees. Sold to laser and telecom integrators, including partners such as Fujitsu.
• BragGrate™ Tuner Transversally Chirped Bragg Grating (TCBG) for spectral stabilization and tuning of laser radiation with tuning ranges up to 30 nm. Sold to laser manufacturers and researchers requiring tunable sources.
• SEOP Laser System Tunable ultra-narrow band diode laser system for Spin Exchange Optical Pumping (SEOP), Diode Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL), and Rare Gas Lasers applications, delivering 35-100 W power with linewidth under 10 GHz. Sold to medical imaging, atomic physics research, and defense customers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Diffraction efficiency exceeding 99.9%
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Wasatch Photonics: Wasatch Photonics manufactures volume holographic gratings and VBG-based optical components for laser, spectroscopy, and OCT applications — the closest direct competitor to OptiGrate's BragGrate™ product line, sharing both the technology platform and several target end markets including Raman spectroscopy and ultrafast lasers.
• Holographix LLC: Holographix is a custom manufacturer of replicated holographic optical elements (HOEs) and diffractive optics for laser and display applications. It directly competes with OptiGrate in custom holographic and diffractive optical components, though it primarily uses replication rather than OptiGrate's proprietary PTR-glass volume grating approach.
• Toptica Photonics: Toptica designs and manufactures tunable diode lasers and quantum optics systems, including narrow-band lasers for spectroscopy, cold-atom, and quantum applications. It overlaps with OptiGrate's SEOP laser and Quantum BragGrate™ filter products in shared quantum and atomic-physics end markets.
• Ondax (now part of Coherent): Ondax was a direct manufacturer of VBG-based filters, notch filters, and beam-combining components — historically OptiGrate's closest head-to-head competitor. Its acquisition by Coherent folded the VBG product line into the broader Coherent portfolio, making the Ondax/Coherent VBG line a key competitive comparator for OptiGrate's BragGrate™ family.

Broad incumbents

• IPG Photonics Corporation: OptiGrate's parent company and a leading global manufacturer of high-power fiber lasers, amplifiers, and ultrafast lasers. IPG is a broad incumbent in the photonics space and an internal customer for OptiGrate's VBG components, making it both a parent and the largest comparable laser-systems business.
• Coherent Corp (formerly II-VI): Coherent is a broad incumbent in laser systems, photonics components, and materials processing, including VBG-related product lines inherited from the II-VI / Finisar portfolio. It is comparable as a large laser-systems platform with a vertically integrated optical-components business competing in many of the same end markets as OptiGrate.
• Thorlabs: Thorlabs is a major catalog distributor and manufacturer of photonics, laser, and optomechanical components serving research and OEM customers worldwide. It overlaps with OptiGrate in offering optical filters, gratings, and laser-line conditioning components to similar photonics OEM and laboratory end users.
• Edmund Optics: Edmund Optics is a broad incumbent catalog manufacturer and supplier of optical components, including filters, gratings, and laser optics, serving industrial, research, and defense customers globally — overlapping with OptiGrate on optical filters and laser-line conditioning products.
• MKS Instruments (Spectra-Physics / Newport): MKS Instruments operates the Spectra-Physics and Newport Optics brands providing lasers, optical components, and motion control for industrial and scientific markets. It is comparable as a broad incumbent photonics components vendor competing for similar laser-systems OEMs and research customers.
• nLIGHT: nLIGHT is a vertically integrated manufacturer of high-power semiconductor and fiber lasers serving industrial, defense, and directed-energy applications. It overlaps with OptiGrate in the high-power laser systems market where OptiGrate's VBGs and spectral beam combining components are integrated.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about OptiGrate