User:Pranav Rathi/Notebook/OT/2010/08/18/CrystaLaser specifications

Specifications

We are expecting our laser any time. To know the laser more we are looking forward to investigate number of things. These specifications are already given by the maker, but we will verify them.

Polarization

Laser is TM (transverse magnetic) or P or Horizontal linearly polarized. We investigated these two ways: 1) by putting a glass interface at Brewster’s angle and measured the reflected and transmitted power. At this angle all the light is transmitted because the laser is P-polarized, 2) by putting a polarizing beam splitter which uses birefringence to separate the two polarizations; P is reflected and S is transmitted, by measuring and comparing the powers, the desired polarizability is determined. We performed the experiment at 1.8 W where P is 1.77 W and S is less than .03 W*

Beam waist at the output window

We used knife edge method (this method is used to determine the beam waist (not the beam diameter) directly); measure the input power of 1.86W at 86.5 and 13.5 % at the laser head (15mm). It gave us the beam waist (Wo) of .82mm (beam diameter =1.64mm).

Possible power fluctuations if any

The power supply temperature is really critical. Laser starts at roughly 1.8 W but if the temperature of the power supply is controlled very well it reaches to 2 W in few minutes and stay there. It’s really stupid of manufacturer that they do not have any fans inside so we put two chopper fans on the top of it to cool it and keep it cool. If no fans are used then within an hour the power supply reaches above 50 degrees of Celsius and then, not only the laser output falls but also the power supply turns itself off after every few minutes.

Mode Profile

Higher order modes had been a serious problem in our old laser, which compelled us to buy this one. So mode profiling is critical; we want our laser to be in TEM00. I am not going to discuss the technique of mode profiling; it can be learned from this link: [1] [2].

As a result it’s confirmed that this laser is TEM00 mode. Check out the pics:

Specs by the Manufacturer

All the laser specs and the manual are in the document: [Specs[3]]

Beam Profile

The original beam waist of the laser is .2mm, but since we requested the 4x beam expansion option, the resultant beam waist is .84 at the output aperture of the laser. As the nature of Gaussian beam it still converges in the far field. We do not know where? So there is a beam waist somewhere in the far field. There are two ways to solve the problem; by using Gaussian formal but, for that we need the beam parameters before expansion optics and information about the expansion optics, which we do not have. So the only way we have, is experimentally measure the beam waist along the z-axis at many points and verify its location for the minimum. Once this is found we put the AOM there. So the experimental data gives us the beam waist and its distance from the laser in the z-direction. We use scanning knife edge method to measure the beam waist.

Method

In this method we used a knife blade on a translation stage with 10 micron accuracy. The blade is moved transverse to the beam and the power of the uneclipsed portion is recorded with a power meter. The cross section of a Gaussian beam is given by:

[math]\displaystyle{ I(r)=I_0 exp(\frac {-2r^2}{w_L^2}) }[/math]

Where I(r) is the Intensity as function of radius (distance in transverse direction), I₀ is the input intensity at r = 0, and w_L is the beam radius. Here the beam radius is defined as the radius where the intensity is reduced to 1/e² of the value at r = 0. This can be seen by letting r = w_L. The experiment data is obtained by gradually moving the blade across from point A to B, and recording the power. Without going into the math the power at the points can be obtained. For starting point A

[math]\displaystyle{ I_A(r=0)=I_0 exp(-2)=I_0*.135 }[/math]

[math]\displaystyle{ I_B=I_0 *(1-.135) }[/math]

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