Bulk lasers

The light produced by a laser has a much more narrow wavelength than the light of an LED or other light sources (Fig. 15.3). In addition, laser light is coherent, i.e., the photons travel in parallel paths from the source. Lasers made of thin-films are similar to bulk lasers (He-Ne, ruby) except that they are more compact and efficient. Due to the short lifetime of the photons, high-frequency modulations are possible. 

C. Honninger, R. Paschotta, M. Graf, F. Morier-Genoud, G. Zhang, M. Moser, S. Biswal, J. Nees, A. Braun, G.A. Mourou, I. Johannsen, A. Giesen, W. Seeber, U. Keller, Ultrafast ytterbium-doped bulk lasers and laser amplifiers, Applied Physics B 69, 3 (1999). 

The microscopic understanding of tire chemical reactivity of surfaces is of fundamental interest in chemical physics and important for heterogeneous catalysis. Cluster science provides a new approach for tire study of tire microscopic mechanisms of surface chemical reactivity [48]. Surfaces of small clusters possess a very rich variation of chemisoriDtion sites and are ideal models for bulk surfaces. Chemical reactivity of many transition-metal clusters has been investigated [49]. Transition-metal clusters are produced using laser vaporization, and tire chemical reactivity studies are carried out typically in a flow tube reactor in which tire clusters interact witli a reactant gas at a given temperature and pressure for a fixed period of time. Reaction products are measured at various pressures or temperatures and reaction rates are derived. It has been found tliat tire reactivity of small transition-metal clusters witli simple molecules such as H2 and NH can vary dramatically witli cluster size and stmcture [48, 49, M and 52]. 

Usually, particle size has relatively little effect on Raman line shapes unless the particles are extremely small, less than 100 nm. For this reason, high-quality Raman spectra can be obtained from powders and from polycrystalline bulk specimens like ceramics and rocks by simply reflecting the laser beam from the specimen surface. Solid samples can be measured in the 90° scattering geometry by mounting a slab of the solid sample, or a pressed pellet of a powder sample so that the beam reflects from the surface but not into the entrance slit (Figure 3). 

A somewhat related technique is that of laser ionization mass spectrometry (LIMS), also known as LIMA and LAMMA, where a single pulsed laser beam ablates material and simultaneously causes some ionization, analogous to samples beyond the outer surface and therefore is more of a bulk analysis technique it also has severe quantiBaction problems, often even more extreme than for SIMS. 

Approximately 70 different elements are routinely determined using ICP-OES. Detection limits are typically in the sub-part-per-billion (sub-ppb) to 0.1 part-per-million (ppm) range. ICP-OES is most commonly used for bulk analysis of liquid samples or solids dissolved in liquids. Special sample introduction techniques, such as spark discharge or laser ablation, allow the analysis of surfaces or thin films. Each element emits a characteristic spectrum in the ultraviolet and visible region. The light intensity at one of the characteristic wavelengths is proportional to the concentration of that element in the sample. 

SNMS is suitable for quantitative element depth profiling of metallic and electrically insulating samples. Laser-SNMS enables the additional acquisition of 2D element distributions with HF-plasma SNMS bulk analysis is also feasible. 

The disadvantage of lasers with nanosecond-picosecond pulse duration for depth profiling is the predominantly thermal character of the ablation process [4.229]. For metals the irradiated spot is melted and much of the material is evaporated from the melt. The melting of the sample causes modification and mixing of different layers followed by changes of phase composition during material evaporation (preferential volatilization) and bulk re-solidification [4.230] this reduces the lateral and depth resolution of LA-based techniques. 

Resonant Excitation Excitation by a laser, which is resonant with an electronic transition of the material under investigation, can increase the Raman cross-section by approximately 10. The transitions and thus the resonance wavelengths are specific for the substances. Resonance excitation thus leads to selectivity that can be useful for suppressing bulk bands, but can also complicate the detection of mixtures of substance with different absorption spectra. 

Laser and electron beam processing are effective methods for preparing amorphous surface alloys covering conventional crystalline bulk metals... 

Phosphoric acid ester was used as a model for the estimation of concentration of a reagent in an adsorbed layer by optical measurements of the intensity of a beam reflecting externally from the liquid-liquid interface. The refractive index of an adsorbed layer between water and organic solution phases was measured through an external reflection method with a polarized incident laser beam to estimate the concentration of a surfactant at the interface. Variation of the interfacial concentration with the bulk concentration estimated on phosphoric acid ester in heptane and water system from the optical method agreed with the results determined from the interfacial tension measurements... 

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