Jussi-Pekka Penttinen is the chief executive officer, chief technical officer, and cofounder of Vexlum Ltd, an advanced laser technology company. With more than 15 years of experience, he is a leading researcher in the field of Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VECSEL) and successfully commercialized the technology. Vexlum has translated cutting-edge research into products as a fast-growing company, providing an enabling technology for the quantum industry and cutting-edge solutions in other markets.
Tell us about your company.
Vexlum is a manufacturer of advanced semiconductor lasers for high-impact applications with deep roots
in a unique academic collaboration that bridged continents and scientific disciplines. The company’s laser concept emerged from a crucial partnership between a quantum research group at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Boulder, Colorado, and a semiconductor and optoelectronics team at Tampere University in Finland. This partnership eventually led to the development of Vexlum’s core technology. This history is directly connected to the foundational work of Nobel laureate David Wineland’s group, whose groundbreaking trapped ion research required the kind of laser capabilities that Vexlum’s technology was designed to deliver.
Looking to the future, Vexlum’s success in the quantum computing industry has made it possible to diversify into high-growth markets like the semiconductor and medical industries. The extreme precision and stability required for quantum computing serve as a powerful validation of Vexlum’s technology, providing a strong reputation to leverage in other fields. Our lasers have potential applications in semiconductor manufacturing for precision lithography and inspection, as well as in medical treatments in dermatology and ophthalmology.. By focusing on providing the most powerful engine for these diverse applications, Vexlum is already being recognized as an advanced laser company that empowers a wide array of human endeavors formerly thought to be impossible, from scientific discovery and space exploration to everyday health and technology.
What problems are you solving?
The size and cost of lasers available to meet the needs of quantum technology have long been recognized as a bottleneck in advancing quantum technologies, such as trapped-ion or neutral-atom quantum computers. Additionally, the lack of a mature enabling technology supply chain for quantum technology further slows down the scaling of quantum computing technology.
Laser systems are often bulky and expensive to integrate, requiring significant space. More than 100 different laser wavelengths are needed across all quantum technology implementations, and different applications impose conflicting requirements on size, weight, and performance.
What application areas are your strongest in?
Vexlum’s lasers are an enabling technology for some of the most demanding applications in science and industry. While the company’s roots are in solving the hardest problems of quantum computing, this has also enabled our lasers to be used in the newest optical atomic clocks and in semiconductor manufacturing. We have been particularly strong in scientific applications. Vexlum has delivered hundreds of high-performance, compact, and cost-effective lasers that replace older, more complicated, and expensive technologies used for research and space exploration. This strategy of democratizing access to cutting-edge laser technology is allowing a broader range of institutions and companies to push the boundaries of research and development.
What keeps your customers up at night?
The cost and size of lasers that must be an exact wavelength a big concern. When new ideas and breakthroughs happen in science and industry, the actual implementation is often blocked by lack of funding or space.
For example, in the space industry, there are challenges in communicating with satellites and identifying the exact location of objects orbiting the Earth due to unpredictable weather and light. To fix this, lasers are used not only for the communication itself, but also for properly locating objects that need to be communicated with using a special yellow laser. Currently, the benefits of these adaptive optical correction systems, which use large, bulky, and expensive lasers, are limited to large telescopes with the space and budget to operate systems that overcome imaging fuzziness created by atmospheric air currents. Vexlum’s technology addresses the key challenges of space-to-ground optical links, including turbulent air currents and the slower transfer speeds of radio waves, by eliminating the need for the massive, costly yellow lasers used in ELTs (Extra Large Telescopes).
By making adaptive optics accessible to smaller telescopes, Vexlum’s approach opens the door to faster delivery of critical information, such as hyperspectral imaging for monitoring wildfires, floods, and ecosystems, as well as more precise tracking of satellites and space debris to enable trajectory corrections and collision avoidance.
What does the competitive landscape look like and how do you differentiate?
We are lucky to be located in Tampere, Finland, which is the emerging “Silicon Valley” of type III / IV laser semiconductor technology. Our patents, unique technology based on the foundational work of Nobel laureate David Wineland’s group, a growing number of partnerships in cutting-edge science, and being in the hidden hub of this specific type of semiconductor development, seem to be keeping us one step ahead of our competitors. This opportunity has been a long time in the making, based on many decades of research and innovation. We consider ourselves to be fortunate that we can be at the right time and place to see and participate in this moment of so many amazing breakthroughs enabled by new photonics advancements.
What new features/technology are you working on?
Vexlum just released its new VXL laser, a next-generation in its single-frequency Vertical-External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VECSEL) portfolio that combines high performance with a compact, robust design.
In addition to its capability to be made in any wavelength, this laser is 10 times smaller than many systems on the market with similar power qualities, and the VXL laser platform delivers the same high-output powers as Vexlum’s VALO platform, in a dramatically smaller and more resilient package, bringing quantum-enabling technology within reach of more research and industry applications.
As a vertically integrated laser manufacturer, Vexlum is accelerating development of quantum technologies by providing single-frequency, high-power, low-noise lasers at an industry-leading selection of wavelengths. Along with being some of the most powerful and accurate lasers available for quantum computing applications, the company’s solutions are driving development in quantum sensing and lab-to-field deployment of quantum technologies.
A laser platform that had typically comprised rack-mounted components is now reduced to a compact, two-liter system, a more than 20-fold reduction in volume, while improving robustness and accessibility. In addition to removing bottlenecks in scaling quantum technologies, the VXL has dual-use applications in the semiconductor, medical, or defense markets. The VXL has already been deployed in early-access projects by research organizations and universities, focusing on quantum computing and quantum sensing technologies.
How do customers normally engage with your company?
Tell us your wavelength and we will custom-make a system for you.
When new discoveries require a specific laser wavelength, we work directly with the researchers or manufacturing team, often from the start of the project, on understanding and jointly developing the complex specification. Then we take those specs back to our factory to grow the custom semiconductor in our reactor and build a laser system designed for their exact application. Because this is science, there are often iterations of a chip or laser to get things exactly right for our customers’ design, but with close coordination, we are proud to say that Vexlum lasers have been part of some amazing advancements and industrial breakthroughs.
Why is it such an important advance in laser technology to be able to make a laser that can be made in any wavelength?
In the semiconductor and quantum industries, we have historically been ‘wavelength-locked’ by the physical limitations of material systems like gallium arsenide or indium phosphide. Breaking this barrier with a wavelength-agnostic platform like the VXL is a fundamental shift from building experiments around available tools to building tools around the science.
By delivering high-power, single-frequency performance at any customized wavelength within a compact, two-liter footprint, we are effectively ‘de-risking’ the transition from laboratory proof-of-concept to industrial-scale manufacturing. For quantum computing, this means researchers no longer need room-sized racks of temperamental lasers to manipulate specific atomic transitions; they can now integrate these systems into rugged, field-deployable units. In semiconductor manufacturing, this flexibility allows for high-precision metrology and lithography applications that were previously cost-prohibitive or physically impossible due to space constraints. Ultimately, the impact is a democratization of precision photonics: when you remove the ‘science project’ complexity from the light source, you allow the industry to focus on scaling the solutions that will define the next decade of computing and sensing.
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