PHGN-480 Fall-2017

Course Information

Professor: Dr. Charles Durfee

Office: Timberline 1, room 15

Meeting Times:

class: M W 11:00-11:50 AM Green 211

lab: Th 9-11:50, GRL Annex

Announcements

28 August 2017: Welcome to Laser Physics!

I will be posting class notes and the first homework soon. Homework will be due wednesdays.

Notes for classes 1 and 2 are posted below.

Office hours

Times: M12:30-2:00, T 1-2, W12:30-2:00

Look for me in my office. If I'm anywhere else, I'll post a note.

Course Material

Syllabus and Reading List

Main text: O. Svelto, Principles of Lasers, 5th edition. There is also online access to the book from a campus/VPN connection:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/n72670/#section=672851&page=1

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader Course syllabus for 2015

Homework Assignments and Midterm:

Grading policy:

Turn in homework on time for full credit. At the time we give homeworks back to you, solutions will be available in printed form in a binder that I'll keep, but you can make a copy.

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader Homework 1, due wednesday 6 Sept 5 pm.

Lab exercises:

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader

Final project

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader Final project guidelines and ideas

Lecture Notes

While these notes are primarily to help me give my lectures, I'm posting them to help you fill in things you may have missed in class or to show the details of calculations we don't have time to work through. If you have any constructive input on how to make these more useful to read, let me know.

Note: if an instructor would like to make use of these slides, please acknowledge me. I would be happy to share the original .pptx files on request (email).

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader Class 1 notes: intro to laser physics Class 2 notes: EM waves

Mathematica Demos

These aren't actually pdf's. Do a "save link as" to save these to your computer, then open with Mathematica.

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader Spectral_shapes.nb : shows BB radiation curves vs frequency and wavelength, also compare Gaussian and Lorentzian shapes fresnel_eqns.nb : interactive plots relating to the Fresnel equations for reflection, transmission at a dielectric interface Polarization_tools.nb : polarization vectors and matrices Fabry-Perot_etalon.nb : interactive plots relating to the Fabry-Perot etalon OC_optimization.nb : Optimizing output coupling in a CW oscillator ABCD_raytracing.nb : ABCD matrices for raytracing, including functions for plotting rays and setting up a sequence ABCD_cavity_analysis_class.nb : ABCD matrices for Gaussian beams and resonators Laser Canvas 5: zip file for a Windows program written at CSU. This program is usable but is not supported.

Useful Links

Photonics.com article on history of lasers

APS article on Townes laser inventions

Javan and Bennet invent HeNE laser

Lab design information

Computer software for lab equipment

You can load the software for the power meter using this website:

PM100 software

This should work for any version of Windows.

The camera software is at this site:

Camera software

This only works on Windows 7.

For later versions of Windows (at least 8), this driver should work. [1]

Thorlabs Fabry-Perot interferometer

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader data sheet for the Thorlabs Fabry Perot manual for FP driver.

Diode-pumped solid state laser

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader data sheet for 2300 series 808nm pump laser for DPSS

Thermistor calculator to convert measured resistance to temperature thermistor calculator

Compass 215M single longitudinal mode green laser

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader data sheet for 5V power supply for Compass control module

External cavity diode laser

These downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader data sheet for diode laser

Links

Wavelength Electronics: Spec page for diode power cable spec page

Siskiyou: Spec page for flexure mirror mount flexure mount page

Thorlabs: diode collimation tube collimation page