The Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeks information on commercial vendors that are capable of providing a Tunable Laser Source.

Contracting Office Address

The Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640

NIST does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this Notice and otherwise pay for the information requested. No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by NIST will arise as a result of submission of responses to this Notice and NIST use of such information. NIST recognizes that proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary data and present it as an addendum to the non-restricted/non-proprietary information. In the absence of such identification, NIST will assume to have unlimited rights to all technical data in the information paper.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The National Institute of Standards (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) is in need of acquiring a commercially available Tunable Laser Source. ITL is building a prototype quantum repeater for long distance secure quantum communications and for future quantum networks. In this research, quantum information is stored and/or processed in a quantum memory, which is operated in the near visible optical wavelength range. In our case, the quantum memory being developed in the lab works at 895 nm. The output photons from the quantum memory at 895 nm need to be converted into the telecommunication band (such as near 1550 nm) that can transmit in optical fibers for long distance with low losses. In previous years, ITL developed such technology for single photon frequency conversion in our lab at NIST. This technology uses a strong pump laser in the Mid-IR range near 2118 nm to convert signal photons at 895 nm into the telecom wavelength at 1550 nm in a nonlinear optical crystal.

Draft Requirement:

NIST is seeking information from all vendors who possess the following requirements:

Tunable Laser Source meeting the following specifications:
- CW single frequency tunable Cr:ZnS/Se laser
- Wavelength tuning range: 2000 nm to 2300 nm (with a single set of optics, mode-hop free).
- Single TEM00 mode with a typical linewidth < 1 MHz.
- Free space optical output power over the whole range of tunability > 300 mW.
- Linear polarization, horizontal >100:1
- Laser output beam: size ~1.5 mm, divergence 0.3 mrad, Quality, M2 < 1.1.
- Fiber pump laser in 3U 19" rack

Interested parties shall describe the capabilities and experience of their organization and personnel as it relates to the requirements described above.

NIST is seeking responses from all responsible vendors. The small business size standard associated with the NAICS code for this effort, 3334516, Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing, with a size standard of 1,000 Employees.
Please include your company's size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice.

After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract. Companies that can provide such services are requested to email a written response describing their abilities to [email protected] no later than the response date for this sources sought notice.

Requirements for Responding to this notice:

All interested capable contractors may respond to this notice by submitting a Capability Statement. The statement should include the following:

1) Name, Address, DUNS number, CAGE code, company website URL and point of contact information of your company.

2) Company size classification and socioeconomic status.

3) Capability statement.

4) Indication of whether the products described in this notice are currently on one or more GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts or other applicable GWAC and, if so, the applicable contract number(s).

5) Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider when finalizing its market research

Responses are limited to a total of twelve (12) pages. The responses must be in MS Word format. Pages shall be 8½-inch x 11-inch, using Times New Roman 11 Point Font. Each page shall have adequate margins on each side (at least one inch) of the page. Header/footer information (which does not include any information to be analyzed) may be included in the 1" margin space.

All responses shall be sent to [email protected] by February 13, 2017 @ 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time with the following subject line "Tunable Laser Source".

Point of Contact
Prateema Carvajal, Contract Specialist, Phone (301) 975-4390, Email [email protected]