Attochron, LLC (Playa del Rey, CA & Forked River, NJ), specializes in free space optical (FSO) applications of ultrashort-pulse optics. Ultrashort optical pulses are created by ultrafast lasers. Attochron’s applications of this technology include ultrafast free space optical communications™ (UFSOC™). Attochron is partnered with The University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM), The Stevens Institute for Technology (Hoboken, NJ), and is collaborating with The Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) on certain research; others are to be announced.

Attochron is developing a growing suite of patented and patent-pending technologies including UFSOC™, and highly-sensitive FSO and fiber-optic detection system for classical and ultrafast optical systems known as DTech™. The FSO format also allows Remote Bio-Chemical Sensing applications. Attochron’s rights for these and other related applications are exclusive. Some of these are licensed from EPRI, UNM, GTRC and other well-known optical sciences research centers worldwide. Others are protected by Attochron-owned IP. Attochron Founder & CEO, Tom Chaffee, is a co-inventor of UFSOC™ along with EPRI VP (retired), Dr. Karl Stahlkopf, and optical physicist, Dr. Jean-Claude Diels at UNM. Other researchers include Attochron’s Ultrafast Optics R&D Director John Cabaniss; Dr. Rainer Martini and Paul Corrigan, both of Stevens Institute, Dr. Dennis Alexander from The University of Nebraska, Lincoln and other ultrafast optics and telecommunications technology experts.

Attochron Technologies
Ultrashort optical pulses are generally defined as pico- (10-12), femto- (10-15), atto- (10-18), and zepto- (10-21) second time periods in length. Ultrashort pulses can provide a sensing and/or communications bandwidth thousands of times greater than current technologies since their spectrum is 20 times or more greater than current systems. As a new field in optical physics, ultrafast optics has the proven potential to overcome the final challenge to FSO systems: Weather conditions.  Fog, clouds and rain, which hinder state-of-the-art FSO and RF technologies, react very differently when an ultrashort pulse is passing through them. The high peak powers and broad spectrum that are characteristic of ultrashort pulses have been proven by Attochron and its partners to penetrate fog and clouds at least 10 times better than existing systems. It is expected that even much greater improvements will be realized.

Attochron's UFSOC™ technology will benefit commercial, military and disaster recovery telecommunications networks by allowing large bandwidth and highly-available (all-weather) networks to be constructed rapidly and cost-effectively for the first time. An added benefit of using such extremely short pulses is the simplification of optical communications schemes to a TDM basis while providing hugely scalable networks capable of terabit speeds. Attochron’s communications solutions are designed to be fully compatible with, and transparent to, today's standard WDM and IP networks.   

Attochron, its partners, and many other experts around the world, believe that Attochron’s technologies will revolutionize many sectors – beginning with communications via the commercialization of UFSOC™ and UFSOC™-related systems. Primary costumers include the entire business community, remote military commanders, and space agencies.

January 2007

Attochron would like to thank Curtis Hutchins for corporate communications.