Avesta Ltd. develops and manufactures femtosecond laser oscillators and amplifiers (both solid-state and fiber-based) as well as ultrafast diagnostic tools and various laser components. We offer Ti:Sapphire, Yb-doped, Cr:Forsterite solid-state ultrafast and CW lasers, as well as Er-doped and Yb-doped ultrafast fiber lasers. In the field of diagnostics we offer pulse duration measurement devices, spectrometers, spectral phase measurement. In components we offer pulse pickers, harmonic generators, Faraday rotators and isolators, optical attenuators, THz generators, Raman shifters, hollow-fiber pulse compressors and dispersion management units. All our systems are produced in-house, we also make OEM systems and components for other customers. Currently (as of 2022) we have an installed base of more than 3000 customers in Russia and abroad.
Our company entered the fascinating world of laser technology in 1990, short before the iron curtain and the Soviet regime fell down. The former scientific superpower that reared Nobel Prize-winning co-founders of the laser theory Basov and Prokhorov, was gradually dissolving in wild capitalistic atmosphere of the post-Soviet age. At that time high-tech and innovative companies could barely make both ends meet. That is where we had to start.
We took the experience of the old and the desire for knowledge of the young, created a mixture and named it Avesta (formally incorporated in 1992). Using the facilities and scientific background of Quantum Radiophysics Division and Troitsk branch of P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute (initially inspired by N. G. Basov) we started to revitalize the Russian ultrafast laser technology. Later, in 1998, we divided the company into a research and development branch – Avesta Project Ltd. and simply Avesta Ltd., that now develops industrial application and handles component manufacturing.
Gradually the financial situation in Russian R&D and high-tech industry improved with more attention being directed to implementing Western practices of grant-based financing and University-centered R&D models, as well as support for applied technology transfer to industry. Along with growth of the Russian laser market, export sales also became a significant part of our sales revenue.