In 2021, the Duke Quantum Center partnered with MKS - Newport to address the vibrational concerns introduced by a freight train less than 100 feet away. Today, with Newport™ RS4000 Series Optical Table Tops and S-2000A Series Stabilizer™ Pneumatic Vibration Isolators, the researchers can position their ions with 50 nanometer accuracy, regardless of the neighboring environmental conditions.

RS4000 optical tables use Tuned Mass Damping (TMD) technology to eliminate table resonances. TMD is the most effective method among all known passive damping methods, as it concentrates damping efforts where it's needed at the frequencies of dominant resonance modes. It is widely used in various industries for its efficiency and effectiveness of damping, such as the famous Grand Canyon Skywalk, Taipei 101 Building, and NASA's Ares I rocket. Compared to our top competitor's broadband damping methods which absorbs a moderate amount of vibration energy equally over the broad band, Newport's tuned mass damping method targets at resonances and as a result is much more effective. Our precisely tuned dampers work from as low as 25 Hz and go all the way up to 525 Hz, creating opportunity for optimum damping on larger optical tables, the resonances of which often fall outside of competitor's broadband frequency range.

RS4000 Series optical tables are a culmination of many years of experience, innovation and attention to detail leading to unmatched vibration immunity. RS4000 tables feature a 4.8 mm thick optical table skin, a constrained layer core, damped working surface and composite edge finish to provide broadband damping. Six precision tuned dampers are included to selectively eliminate four fundamental structural table modes and their entire harmonics. Originally designed for high end interferometric research, these optical tables are the best choice for extremely sensitive measurements such as live cell imaging, high resolution imaging, interferometry, experiments with long exposure time and so on.

The compliance curve shows the positional motion of the structure for a given excitation force and frequency. The red line is the rigid body line showing how an ideal optical table would perform with no relative motion. The blue line shows the natural frequencies of the optical table and how they deviate from that of a rigid body.

Newport's honeycomb core is different than our competitors. Each piece of the corrugated honeycomb steel sheet is emerged in proprietary elastomeric vibration absorbing materials and bonded vertically throughout the height of the optical breadboard or optical table, creating a much stiffer honeycomb core structure. This labor intensive procedure makes sure that Newport's optical breadboard or optical table has the most robust honeycomb structures.

All Newport tables are vertically bonded along the height of the honeycomb core. Most other manufacturers forego this extra step because of added expense and time required to apply adhesive to each individual core member. Vertical bonding adds constrained layer damping effects into the core, while maximizing the table’s rigidity-to-weight ratio. The trussed core design enables a triple core interface at each honeycomb cell. Whereas open core designs only have two structural members at each interface, the Newport table has three offering a 50% increase in local rigidity. The three sheets are fully bonded for the full table height producing greater stiffness.

All of Newport's optical breadboards and tables are with individually sealed mounting holes. Those mounting holes feature 19 mm screw depth and in contrast to some of the other products in the market that has channel for a row of holes or just a polymeric film, Newport's individually sealed holes are more reliable and easier to clean. This is because we believe in the integrity of the product - especially the core. When dust and liquids go into your optical breadboard and table, it may have a long term effect on the damping performance of the product and make the product degrade over time. A good quality breadboard and table lasts long time - tens of years and more. It's a good investment for a product with sealed mounting holes.

The 1/4-20 or M6 tapped mounting holes are countersunk and deburred. This ensures easy thread engagement while eliminating contamination problems. The mounting holes are located on a 1 in. or 25 mm grid with standard grid markings for easy and repeatable component placement.

Side panels for optical tables are more than just covers. They should contribute to the overall damping performance of the table. Our optical tables use highly damped composite wood as side panels to help eliminate vibrations from the side. Composite wood has a much better damping performance than steel. Steel has a high elasticity and tends to allow vibration or ringing. Materials with low elasticity such as wood tend to dampen vibration and ringing. For example, home stereo speakers are typically enclosed by composite wood to damp the acoustic vibrations.

Metrology quality steel assembly platens are used to ensure the superior flatness of our optical tables. The platen supports the top surface of the table during the assembly and bonding process and imprints the top surface with the same flatness characteristics. Our platens are the largest and flattest in the industry. We use gravity pressure bonding to apply constant pressure across the optical table during the bonding process ensuring that the top surface conforms to the platen flatness.

We offer three types of supports for our optical tables. S-2000A vibration isolators with automatic re-leveling provide industry leading vibration isolation performance, and include an integrated, mechanical height adjustment system to allow improved table leveling, height control and compensation for non-level floors. SL Series pneumatic vibration isolators offer vibration isolation at a very affordable price when automatic re-leveling is not required. The isolators remove floor vibrations in the 10 Hz to 50 Hz range and support a wide variety of less rigorous research and production applications. RL Series non-isolating rigid support legs offer rigid high load support where vibration isolation is not required.

We offer a compete set of optical table accessories to free up space on your optical table or enclose a table top experiment of application.  Accessories include:

• Optical Table Shelf Systems

• Optical Table Enclosures

• Laser Safety Curtains

• Air Compressors

• Earthquake Restraints

• Perimeter Light Shields

• Table Top Light Tight Enclosures

Newport has a dedicated custom design team for your custom needs. This team has been working with various types of materials, shapes (see doubled table tops), structures, hole patterns (and many more) for over 40 years, and has served customers across the world in research, aerospace, semiconductor and medical related fields. Newport is committed to providing: The most accurate and timely quoting response; The most professional communications of custom design review and changes; The optimum turnaround time and the highest quality end product. Contact Newport today for your custom needs.