Iolon Inc. was a manufacturer and designer of tunable laser

Tunable laser

A tunable laser is a laser whose wavelength of operation can be altered in a controlled manner. While all laser gain media allow small shifts in output wavelength, only a few types of lasers allow continuous tuning over a significant wavelength range....

s and optical devices

Optical instrument

An optical instrument either processes light waves to enhance an image for viewing, or analyzes light waves to determine one of a number of characteristic properties.-Image enhancement:...

. Its headquarters were in San Jose, California

San Jose, California

San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

. Its products included the Apollo line of laser

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...

s, as well as optical switches, polarization controllers, tunable filters, spectral monitors, and universal transponder

Transponder

In telecommunication, the term transponder has the following meanings:...

s. Iolon raised over US$85 million dollars in capital during the dot-com bubble

Dot-com bubble

The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...

 of 1995–2001, but faltered as the telecommunications market tightened after the bubble burst. Iolon's remaining assets were bought by Coherent in 2005, for $5 million.

In 2006, Luna Technologies acquired the rights to sell a version of the Apollo laser for use in fiber optic test and measurement instrumentation, and sensing applications. They are selling the modified Apollo laser under the brand name "Phoenix".