All about lasers.
Founded in a Silicon Valley garage, today Coherent is a world-leading manufacturer of photonics solutions.
A leader for more than 50 years
Revolutionizing manufacturing processes. Slashing time-to-market. And dramatically lowering operational costs from automotive to academic to medical. At Coherent, we innovate.
A laser-focused legacy
Founded in California in 1966, Coherent is a global provider of lasers and laser-based technology for scientific, commercial and industrial customers.
With limited financial resources, the engineers who started Coherent established our first headquarters in the Palo Alto home of co-founder James Hobart.
At that time, the pressing need for a 220-volt power outlet forced our brain trust to build our first laser in a laundry room. In the summer of 1966, next to a washer and dryer, and using a piece of rain gutter as a key component, our founders began building our first laser. Four months later, we unveiled the very first CO₂ commercially available laser.
Today, Coherent is one of the world’s leading photonics innovators and manufacturers.
