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Undergraduate Laser Laboratory at SJSU

Undergraduate Laser Laboratory at SJSU. Ken Wharton. SJSU Physics Department . 4 of 14 full-time faculty members with laser/optics research background Houses “Institute for Modern Optics” (contact rdbahuguna@aim.com for more info) Located in the heart of Silicon Valley.

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Undergraduate Laser Laboratory at SJSU

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  1. Undergraduate Laser Laboratory at SJSU Ken Wharton

  2. SJSU Physics Department • 4 of 14 full-time faculty members with laser/optics research background • Houses “Institute for Modern Optics” (contact rdbahuguna@aim.com for more info) • Located in the heart of Silicon Valley Instead of a typical “Advanced Laboratory”, our department instead offers an optics laboratory and a laser laboratory for our upper-division majors.

  3. Laser Laboratory: Overview • 4 optical tables; 8 students/section • 4 hours/week (2 units) • No write-up time in class The first few labs are identical for all students. Then the students rotate through two sets of four labs.

  4. Introductory “Experiments” • Labs 1 & 2 (same for all students): • Laser and Electrical Safety • Mounts/hardware (built from scratch each week) • Optics handling/cleaning • Beam pointing + centering (HeNe laser) • Power measurements (HeNe laser) • ND Filters/Attenuation (Only actual experiment) • Scientific Writing Techniques Need 4 sets of everything in these labs. (Optical Tables, ND Filters, power meters, HeNe lasers, mirrors, hardware...)

  5. Primary Experiments • Align HeNe cavity; current vs. power (*) • Polarization Lab (/2, /4 plates, Pockels cell) • CCD Lab, Gaussian Beam Propagation • Photodetector response time (chopped HeNe) • He-Ne Beam Amplification / Saturation Intensity (*) • CO2 laser (homemade system) (*) • Argon-Ion laser (multi-line, diffraction grating expt.) • Interferometry (index of refraction of air) Donated equipment includes CCD camera, optical tables, power supplies, HeNes, Optics, Hardware...

  6. HeNe Discharge Tube 1st experiment: Use reference HeNe to align mirrors, optimize power output, plot discharge current vs. power. 2nd experiment: Increasing input power lowers gain (from ~15% to ~5%) allowing estimation of saturation intensity for HeNe.

  7. CO2 Laser Experiment • One mirror fixed; one mirror adjustable (students align with reference HeNe) • Maximum power ~ 500mW • Students try different output couplers • Beam size estimated from burn spot on paper • Students compute gain coefficient, efficiency

  8. Final Thoughts • Lab complements laser course • Usual reasons: Hands-on learning, etc... • The real world vs. 1st-order laser theory e.g. Gaussian Beam Lab, introduce M2≠1 • Lab experience key for jobs in photonics • If interested in more info, please contact me: • Ken Wharton, wharton@science.sjsu.edu Thanks: Sarma Lakkaraju, Kiumars Parvin, Ramen Bahuguna, Jose Garcia

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