Karl F. Renk - Basics of Laser Physics

Basics of Laser Physics — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Basics of Laser Physics" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...302

Part I
General Description of a Laser and an Example

Springer International Publishing AG 2017

Karl F. Renk Basics of Laser Physics Graduate Texts in Physics 10.1007/978-3-319-50651-7_1

1. Introduction

Karl F. Renk 1

(1)

Institut fr Angewandte Physik, Universitt Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Karl F. Renk

Email:

We will ask and partly answer a few questions. What is the difference between a laser and a light bulb? In which frequency ranges are lasers available? Which are the sizes and the costs of lasers? Why is it necessary to have different types of lasers in the same frequency range? We will also mention some specific lasers and we will discuss the concept of the book.

Fig. 1.1

Continuous wave ( cw ) laser, femtosecond ( fs ) laser and light bulb

1.1 Laser and Light Bulb

The spatial and temporal coherence makes the difference between a laser and a light bulb (Fig. ). While a lamp emits uncorrelated wave trains into all spatial directions, a laser generates coherent waves and the waves can have a high directionality. Which are the possibilities of generation of spatially and temporally coherent waves? A laser can generate a coherent continuous wave or a coherent pulse train. Extreme cases of generation of visible radiation are as follows :

• The continuous wave laser (cw laser) emits a continuous electromagnetic wave. The field is spatially and temporally coherent.
• The femtosecond laser emits an electromagnetic wave consisting of a pulse train; the duration of a single pulse of a train can be as short as 5 fs (1 fs 1 femtosecond s). The field of a pulse train is spatially and temporally coherent too.

Besides continuous wave lasers and femtosecond lasers, there are pulsed lasers producing laser pulses with durations in the picosecond, nanosecond, microsecond, or millisecond ranges. We use the abbreviations :

• 1 ms 1 millisecond 10 s
• 1 s 1 microsecond 10 s
• 1 ns 1 nanosecond 10 s
• 1 ps 1 picosecond 10 s
• 1 fs 1 femtosecond 10 s
• 1 as 1 attosecond 10 s

The acronym LASER means: L ight A mplification by S timulated E mission of R adiation. It developed to laser device for generation of coherent electromagnetic waves by stimulated emission of radiation. The maser ( microwave laser ) makes use of microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

1.2 Spectral Ranges of Lasers and List of a Few Lasers

Figure shows wavelengths and frequencies of spectral ranges of the electromagnetic spectrumfrom X-rays over the ultraviolet (UV), the visible, the near infrared (NIR), the far infrared (FIR) spectral ranges to microwaves and radiowaves. The frequency of an electromagnetic wave in vacuum obeys the relation

(1.1)

where c ( m s ) is the speed of light and the wavelength. Abbreviations of frequencies are as follows:

• 1 MHz 1 megahertz 10 Hz
• 1 GHz 1 gigahertz 10 Hz
• 1 THz 1 terahertz 10 Hz
• 1 PHz 1 petahertz 10 Hz

The visible spectral range corresponds to a frequency range of about 430750 THz (wavelength range about 400700 nm). Optics and light refer to electromagnetic waves with vacuum wavelengths smaller than about 1 mm, i.e., with frequencies above 300 GHz. Lasers are available in the ultraviolet, visible, near infrared, far infrared, and microwave regions. Lasers of the range of X-rays are being developed. The spectral ranges in which lasers are available extend from the GHz range over the THz range to the region above 1, 000 THz.

Next page

1234567...302

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Basics of Laser Physics»

Look at similar books to Basics of Laser Physics. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Michael Laser

Cheater

Karl Marx

Selected Works of Karl Marx

Alexander Belyaev

The Basics of Nuclear and Particle Physics

Townes

How the Laser Happened

Karl F. Kuhn

Basic Physics: A Self-Teaching Guide

Kaoru Yamanouchi

Progress in Ultrafast Intense Laser Science XV

Karl F. Kuhn

Basic Physics

Karl F. Kuhn

Basic Physics: A Self-Teaching Guide, 3rd Edition (Wiley Self Teaching Guides)

David J. Goldberg (editor)

Laser Dermatology

Hazem Juratli

Laser and IPL Technology in Dermatology and Aesthetic Medicine

Polanyi Karl

Karl Polanyi: the limits of the market

Ficek

Quantum physics for beginners

Discussion, reviews of the book Basics of Laser Physics and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.