Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR) has joined the Diode Technology Working Group within the STARFIRE Hub, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory initiative focused on advancing inertial fusion energy.
The STARFIRE program, backed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, is developing the technical foundation for future commercial fusion systems. By bringing together national laboratories, academic researchers, and private companies, the hub aims to accelerate innovation in high-power diode technology, a core requirement for scalable inertial fusion.
Fusion energy, long viewed as a potential source of clean and abundant power, gained momentum after LLNL reported a key ignition breakthrough in 2022. Progress in diode technology is considered critical to supporting the high-repetition lasers needed to make inertial confinement fusion commercially viable.
“Joining the STARFIRE Diode Technology Working Group is an exciting opportunity for Coherent to help define the future of diode technology for inertial fusion,” said Beck Mason, executive vice president of semiconductor devices at Coherent. “We’re proud to lend our expertise to this transformative effort and to collaborate with other leaders advancing the frontier of clean, limitless energy.”
Founded in 1971 and operating in more than 20 countries, Coherent brings a broad technology portfolio, global supply chain resilience, and scale to support its customers’ most complex challenges. Its participation in STARFIRE reflects the company’s strategy of applying photonics innovation to long-term sustainability goals, including the pursuit of commercially viable fusion energy.
