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The Photonics Spotlight

added: Tue, 11th July 2006 | 692 views | 0x in favourites
feed url: http://www.rp-photonics.com/spotlight.xml

The Photonics Spotlight highlights interesting news and useful information in the area of photonics, particularly on laser technology and applications.

Latest feed entries:

Wavelength-Tunable Lasers: Does the Tuner Degrade the Power Efficiency?

Depending on the situation, a tunable bandpass filter in a laser resonator, used for wavelength tuning, may or may not cause a substantial reduction of output power. The article discusses this in some detail.

Decoupling Pulse Duration and Pulse Energy

Changes of the pulse repetition rate of a Q-switched laser usually also affect the pulse duration. This can be avoided with a master oscillator power amplifier setup. The article compares both concepts.

Unpolarized Single-Frequency Output

Unpolarized emission of a laser is a necessarily stochastic phenomenon, which cannot occur for a strictly monochromatic beam.

Photographs for the Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology

Readers are encouraged to provide photographs for publication in the Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology.

Print Version of the Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology

A print version of the Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology will appear soon. It can already be ordered.

Beat Signals with Zero Linewidth

It may be surprising that the linewidth of an optical beat signal can be exactly zero, even if the two optical frequencies both have phase noise, which is not even perfectly correlated.

The Simplified History of the Michelson-Morley Experiment

We are often told a very simplified and actually distorted history of the Michelson-Morley experiment and the following development of science. The article tries to correct such views and puts Einstein's accomplishment in a different perspective.

Stronger Focusing Avoids SESAM Damage

A curious phenomenon is that a SESAM for passive mode locking of a solid-state laser sometimes lives longer when being operated with a more tightly focused resonator mode. The article explains this on the basis of Q-switching instabilities, which are then more firmly suppressed.

All-in-One Ultrafast Laser Systems

Various kinds of all-in-one ultrafast laser systems have been proposed which could be simpler than a traditional system consisting of a mode-locked laser and a regenerative amplifier. It seems though, that this approach has no real chance to lead to cheaper systems with comparable performance. The article gives some reasons for that opinion.

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and the Transform Limit

It is sometimes claimed that the transform limit for pulses is strongly related to Heisenberg's uncertainty limit. The article shows that this is nonsense; there is nothing more than a vague similarity. One should not confuse physics (statements on nature) with mathematics.

Fiber Lasers Which Are No Fiber Lasers

Fiber laser products often strictly do not contain a fiber laser, but rather a master oscillator fiber amplifier. This may or may not be relevant for the customer. The high sensitivity of such devices to optical feedback can be a problem of which many people are no aware.

Einstein and the Laser

It is interesting to consider the contributions of Albert Einstein to the laser. It turns out that these contributions are in a sense similar to those to the atomic bomb: basic physical principles were revealed, while a lot of work remained to be done to get the thing going.

Easier Self-Starting Passive Mode Locking for Short Lasers

Experience shows that self-starting of passively mode-locked lasers is more easily achieved for those lasers with short resonators. The article explains why.

Length of a Photon

A frequently encountered question concerns the length of a photon. The article shows that this is not a sensible question, because there is no comprehensive model of a photon to which this question could be applied.

Different Kinds of Polarization

The term 'polarization' is often used in photonics. It can have totally different meanings.

Abused Photonics Terms: Coherence

'Coherence' is a term about which there is significant confusion in the literature. The article gives some examples and encourages a more precise use.

Abused Photonics Terms: Modes

The term 'modes' belongs to the most often abused terms in photonics. The article discusses some examples and shows that the problem is not just sloppy wording, but the risk of losing the essential meaning.

Solitons: Lower Dispersion, Stronger Dispersive Effects!

At a first glance, it seems that the balance between dispersive and nonlinear effects in a soliton pulse cannot be maintained e.g. when the fiber dispersion is reduced to one half the original value. A closer inspection shows that this is not the case.

Mode-Locked Lasers: Lower Average Powers in Shorter Pulses

It is often experienced that those mode-locked lasers generating shorter pulses also offer lower average powers and pulse energies. The article explains some common reasons for that correlation.

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