Lasers and

E.N. Hogert, M.Landau, M. Rebollo y N.G. Gaggioli. Proc.of the 5 Latin-American Meeting, Lasers and their Applications. Nov. 20-25 1995, La Habana, Cuba. 

The principle of optical triangulation has been known since the time of the early Greeks, and indeed optical triangulation has been used for hundreds of years in applications such as surveying, camera auto-focus and even smart-bombs. With the advent of low-cost, compact electro-optic components such as lateral-effect photodetectors, diode lasers and micro-optics, laser-based triangulation sensors can now be employed for applications that were, heretofore, considered uninspectable. 

An excellent and readable discnssion of all aspects of the interaction of light with matter, from blackbody radiation to lasers and nonlinear optics. 

Spectroscopic detemiination of the HE rotational distribution is another story. In both the chemical laser and infrared chemiluminescence experiments, rotational relaxation due to collisions is faster or at least comparable to the time scale of the measurements, so that accurate detemiination of the nascent rotational distribution was not feasible. However, Nesbitt [40, 41] has recently carried out direct infrared absorption experiments on the HE product under single-collision conditions, thereby obtaining a fiill vibration-rotation distribution for the nascent products. 

Strickler S J, Gilbert J V and McClanaham J E 1984 Two-photon absorption spectroscopy of molecules Lasers and Applications eds H D Bist and J S Goela (New Delhi Tata McGraw-Hill) pp 351-61... 

A RIKES experunent is essentially identical to that of CW CARS, except the probe laser need not be tunable. The probe beam is linearly polarized at 0° (—>), while the polarization of the tunable pump beam is controlled by a linear polarizer and a quarter waveplate. The pump and probe beams, whose frequency difference must match the Raman frequency, are overlapped in the sample (just as in CARS). The strong pump beam propagating tlirough a nonlinear medium induces an anisotropic change in the refractive mdices seen by tlie weaker probe wave, which alters the polarization of a probe beam [96]. The signal field is polarized orthogonally to the probe laser and any altered polarization may be detected as an increase in intensity transmitted tlirough a crossed polarizer. When the pump beam is Imearly polarized at 45° y), contributions... 

A connnon teclmique used to enliance the signal-to-noise ratio for weak modes is to inject a local oscillator field polarized parallel to the RIKE field at the detector. This local oscillator field is derived from the probe laser and will add coherently to the RIKE field [96]. The relative phase of the local oscillator and the RIKE field is an important parameter in describing the optical heterodyne detected (OHD)-RIKES spectrum. If the local oscillator at the detector is in phase with the probe wave, the heterodyne mtensity is proportional to... 

In order to achieve a reasonable signal strength from the nonlinear response of approximately one atomic monolayer at an interface, a laser source with high peak power is generally required. Conuuon sources include Q-switched ( 10 ns pulsewidth) and mode-locked ( 100 ps) Nd YAG lasers, and mode-locked ( 10 fs-1 ps) Ti sapphire lasers. Broadly tunable sources have traditionally been based on dye lasers. More recently, optical parametric oscillator/amplifier (OPO/OPA) systems are coming into widespread use for tunable sources of both visible and infrared radiation. 

New metliods appear regularly. The principal challenges to the ingenuity of the spectroscopist are availability of appropriate radiation sources, absorption or distortion of the radiation by the windows and other components of the high-pressure cells, and small samples. Lasers and synchrotron radiation sources are especially valuable, and use of beryllium gaskets for diamond-anvil cells will open new applications. Impulse-stimulated Brillouin [75], coherent anti-Stokes Raman [76, 77], picosecond kinetics of shocked materials [78], visible circular and x-ray magnetic circular dicliroism [79, 80] and x-ray emission [72] are but a few recent spectroscopic developments in static and dynamic high-pressure research. 

Figure B2.1.1 Femtosecond light source based on an amplified titanium-sapphire laser and an optical parametric amplifier. Symbols used P, Brewster dispersing prism X, titanium-sapphire crystal OC, output coupler B, acousto-optic pulse selector (Bragg cell) FR, Faraday rotator and polarizer assembly DG, diffraction grating BBO, p-barium borate nonlinear crystal.

Keil and co-workers (Dhamiasena et al [16]) have combined the crossed-beam teclmique with a state-selective detection teclmique to measure the angular distribution of HF products, in specific vibration-rotation states, from the F + Fl2 reaction. Individual states are detected by vibrational excitation with an infrared laser and detection of the deposited energy with a bolometer [30]. 

Hz repetition rate of the lasers and is usually sampled with a gated integrator, whose output is reeorded with a laboratory eomputer. Analogue, rather than digital, eleetronies is usually employed beeause of pile-up of the deteeted photon eounts in an experiment with reasonable produet intensities. 

Recently, the state-selective detection of reaction products tluough infrared absorption on vibrational transitions has been achieved and applied to the study of HF products from the F + H2 reaction by Nesbitt and co-workers (Chapman et al [7]). The relatively low sensitivity for direct absorption has been circumvented by the use of a multi-pass absorption arrangement with a narrow-band tunable infrared laser and dual beam differential detection of the incident and transmission beams on matched detectors. A particular advantage of probing the products tluough absorption is that the absolute concentration of the product molecules in a given vibration-rotation state can be detenuined. 

Figure Cl. 1.1. Schematic of a typical laser vaporization supersonic metal cluster source using a pulsed laser and a pulsed helium carrier gas.

The earliest molecular beam infrared experiments on Van der Waals complexes used photodissociation spectroscopy a molecular beam is irradiated witli a tunable infrared laser and tire molecular beam intensity is measured as a function of... 

Table C2.15.1 Common laser sources (s denotes solid-state lasers and g denotes gaseous lasers).

AQGa As grown on GaAs is used for the preparation of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), injection lasers and... 

Coldren L A and Corzine S W 1995 Diode Lasers and Photonic integrated Circuits (New York Wiley)... 

Laser desorption to produce ions for mass spectrometric analysis is discussed in Chapter 2. As heating devices, lasers are convenient when much energy is needed in a very small space. A typical laser power is 10 ° W/cm. When applied to a solid, the power of a typical laser beam — a few tens of micrometers in diameter — can lead to very strong localized heating that is sufficient to vaporize the solid (ablation). Some of the factors controlling heating with lasers and laser ablation are covered in Figure 17.2. 

These data are typical of lasers and the sorts of samples examined. The actual numbers are not crucial, but they show how the stated energy in a laser can be interpreted as resultant heating in a solid sample. The resulting calculated temperature reached by the sample is certainly too large because of several factors, such as conductivity in the sample, much less than I00% efficiency in converting absorbed photon energy into kinetic energy of ablation, and much less than 100% efficiency in the actual numbers of photons absorbed by the sample from the beam. If the overall efficiency is 1-2%, the ablation temperature becomes about 4000 K. 

Some Typical Lasers and Their Power Outputs... 

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