Many people like to use the stock price to measure the technological strength of a company, but the stock prices of many high-tech entities are actually not good. For example, Fujing Technology achieved a total operating income of 490 million in 2018 and a net profit of 490 million yuan. The profit is only 150 million, and the total market value is only 5 billion. No matter how you look at it, such a company feels weak.
However, Fujing Technology’s products have a global monopoly and are directly banned from sale in the United States. Let’s find out how awesome Fujing Technology’s products are.
Fujing Technology is different from other companies. It is actually a company that directly commercializes research results. Why do you say this? It was established on October 31, 2001 by jointly funded by the Fujian Institute of Material Structure (Institute of Material Structure) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 43 natural persons. Therefore, Fujing Technology has received technical support from the Institute of Physics and Structure, and has brought together the lifelong research results of many academicians. For example, Chairman Chen Hui is the assistant director and deputy director of the Institute of Physics and Structure.
Fujing goes public
Companies like Fujing Technology are actually very good. It directly transforms scientists’ research results into products, and scientists can also get paid for their participation in the shares. In this way, scientists’ There is also value in giving.
Fujing Technology is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of nonlinear optical crystals, laser crystals and precision optical components. Its products are widely used in laser, optical communications and other industrial fields.
Crystals are key upstream components of laser equipment. Laser is another major discovery of mankind after nuclear energy, computers and semiconductors since the 20th century. It is known as the "fastest knife", "the most accurate ruler" and "the brightest light". It has been used in everything from national defense weapons to They are used everywhere from welding and cutting in automobiles, aviation, and space shuttles, to the engravings on the backs of electronic products around us.
But all laser equipment is inseparable from laser crystals. They must pass the stimulated radiation of the laser crystal in order to emit laser light of a specific frequency. Actual usage is more complicated, because corresponding to different scene requirements, a "converter" - a nonlinear optical crystal - is often added to obtain lasers of various wavelengths.
Fujing Technology’s main products include LBO and BBO, TGG, BIB0, KD*P, BIG, Er:Cr:YSGG and other crystals. Many of its products are unique to Fujing Technology globally.
But in fact, the products of Fujing Technology are a very demanding job. Taking LBO crystal as an example, lithium metaborate (LBO) crystal is currently widely used in ultraviolet frequency doubling. It is an example of the successful discovery of new crystals by combining anionic group theoretical calculations with crystal growth. It was discovered by Academician Chen Chuangtian. Because LBO crystal has short ultraviolet absorption edge, wide light transmission wavelength, high optical uniformity, large effective frequency multiplication coefficient and angular bandwidth, small discrete color, high anti-light operating threshold and excellent Due to its physical and chemical properties, it is widely used in high-power frequency doubling, triple frequency, quadruple frequency, sum frequency, difference frequency and other fields. Secondly, it also has good application prospects in parametric oscillation, parametric amplification, optical waveguide and electro-optical effects.
LBO crystals are generally grown using the molten salt (high-temperature solution) method. In terms of growth cycle, the growth cycle of an LBO crystal takes 2-3 months, and the annual output is only so much, so although it is a monopoly It has reached 60% of the global market, but the income is actually not high. The BBO vigilance growth cycle is longer. The growth cycle of a BBO crystal takes 3-4 months.
But this is also the advantage of Fujing Technology. The research and development and growth of crystals require a large amount of investment and a large number of scientific and technological talents. This is something that many companies, especially private companies, cannot do because they Profit is needed, and slow business is the strongest barrier. Moreover, as an industry overlord, Fujing has continued to invest huge amounts of money in research and development after forming super strong barriers: Since 2012, the ratio of annual research and development investment to operating income has remained at around 10.
Nowadays, Fujing Technology has developed a variety of crystal growth technologies such as molten salt method, pull method, aqueous solution method and crucible descent method, and has a variety of processing methods such as CNC machining, double polishing, large ring polishing and so on. IAD, IBS, EB and other coating processes are suitable for various application needs.
It can be said that Fujing Technology has created a complete industrial chain consisting of "raw material synthesis-crystal growth-orientation-cutting-rough grinding-polishing-coating" and other processes.
To put it simply, there is a one-stop service for the upstream, middle and downstream, and no soup is given to others.
Of course, these are not the strongest products of Fujing Technology. The strongest product of Fujing Technology is the KBBF crystal that the United States has coveted for a long time.
KBBF crystal is currently the only nonlinear optical crystal that can directly frequency double to generate deep ultraviolet laser. KBBF crystal can shorten the wavelength of laser. Various lasers equipped with this crystal can emit ultraviolet light waves with extremely narrow bandwidth, and can measure solid electronic energy levels with a resolution of 360 microelectron volts. It can be used to create powerful laser weapons. When the United States was studying space laser weapons in the 1970s and 1980s, it studied the feasibility of lasers in the deep ultraviolet band (176 nanometer wavelength) to intercept incoming intercontinental missiles.
KBBF crystals can also be used to build ultra-high-resolution photoelectron spectrometers, superconducting measurements, lithography and other cutting-edge scientific research, which will have far-reaching implications for future micro-nano processing, biomedicine, laser television, etc. Influence.
Academician Chen Chuangtian
Take the deep ultraviolet laser light emission electron microscope (PEEM) as an example. The most advanced light emission electron microscope in the world currently has a spatial resolution of up to 20nm, and uses an all-solid-state After laser, it can be increased to 3.9nm. Using KBBF crystals, my country has become the only country in the world that can manufacture practical deep ultraviolet all-solid-state lasers. This series of cutting-edge equipment includes a deep ultraviolet nonlinear optical crystal and device platform, a deep ultraviolet all-solid-state laser source platform, and 8 new deep ultraviolet laser scientific research equipment developed based on these two platforms. At present, these eight scientific instruments have obtained important results in a series of major research fields such as graphene, high-temperature superconductivity, topological insulators, wide-bandgap semiconductors and catalysts.
To put it simply, KBBF crystal is an indispensable and important technology in both the national defense and civilian markets.
KBBF crystal is the third nonlinear optical crystal discovered by Academician Chen Chuangtian. Later, Academician Chen Chuangtian’s research group successively discovered RBBF, CBBF and other nonlinear optical crystals in 2005, thus obtaining the complete KBBF family. Nonlinear optical series crystals.
Fujing Technology did not ban the sale of KBBF crystals to the outside world at first. Later, it was discovered that the influence of this technology was too great. If the United States mastered it, it would have a very adverse impact. So in 2009, Fujing Technology officially banned the sale of KBBF crystals to the United States.
The U.S. Defense Research and Homeland Security Assessment Department is very troubled by this. At that time, the American "Nature" magazine published an article saying that China began to embargo KBBF crystals, which would have a serious impact on research in related fields in the United States, and called for the United States to start developing its own KBBF crystals.
The United States once tried to buy Academician Chen Chuangtian at a high price, hoping that Academician Chen Chuangtian would come to work in the United States. But Academician Chen Chuangtian sternly refused to come to the United States. Academician Chen Chuangtian once said: To reach the pinnacle of scientific research, one must have the spirit of devoting oneself to science, be willing to live a poor and lonely life, and not be tempted by money, but must be realistic, work hard, and strive for innovation.
Facing the ban on sales of Fujing Technology, the United States can only engage in research and development on its own in order to break through Fujing's technological blockade.
It was also from 2009 that the U.S. government began to allocate funds to APC’s eight-year-old KBBF project. The project’s initial capital was approximately US$150,000, and an additional US$500,000 was added in 2011 to complete the project. Related preliminary research. Since then it has entered the formal research and development phase, with the project costing "millions of dollars" so far.
It took a total of 15 years. In 2016, the American APC (Advanced Optical Crystal) Company website issued a statement announcing that the company had cooperated with Clemson University to develop boron fluoride. Potassium beryllium acid crystal (KBBF), this laser crystal can be used to manufacture deep ultraviolet lasers.
KBBF crystal developed by APC of the United States
The company stated that the crystals they produce are comparable to crystals made in China and surpass similar Chinese materials in some key technical fields. The statement stated that this crystal will improve the United States' ability to detect defense threats and will also provide new capabilities for scientific research and measurement technology. This material is considered a "game changer."
This style of painting really makes me laugh. One day, the United States will actually send out news that it took 15 years to break China's technological blockade.
However, Fujing Technology has now mastered a new technology. Because KBBF contains highly toxic beryllium elements and its crystal layer growth habit is serious, there is an urgent need to explore new deep ultraviolet NLO crystal materials. China's Fujian Institute of Physics discovered a new beryllium-free deep ultraviolet nonlinear optical crystal material LSBO.
LSBO crystal not only has moderate birefringence, can achieve effective phase matching frequency doubling output, but also has greater nonlinear optical effects than KBBF (2.0 times KDP, approximately equivalent to 1.6 times that of KBBF) , and also significantly overcomes the obvious layered growth habit of KBBF crystal.
Research on deep ultraviolet nonlinear optical crystal materials of Fujian Institute of Physics has made progress
LSBO crystal has an optical transmission range as low as 186 nm, does not absorb moisture, has moderate hardness, and is easy to process. . This crystal is different from traditional boro beryllium deep ultraviolet nonlinear optical materials and will become an excellent candidate material for the next generation of deep ultraviolet nonlinear optics, representing a new development direction in this field.
I don’t know how many more years it will take the United States to break Fujing Technology’s new technological blockade.