Short pulse

Secondly, a short pulse duration is required in order to achieve a good axial resolution, i.e. two signals close together should be detected without interference. The task can be, for example, to detect a small reflector close to the surface or back wall of the test object, as the inspection has to cover the total volume as complete as possible, including the near-surface regions. 

The size of the leakage was determined as follows. Radiation detectors were mounted on the inlet of the first side, and the outlet of the second side of the heat exchanger and at additional locations for control. A short pulse of Kr-85 tracer (<0.1 sec) was injected into the feed stream, which gave rise to detector responses shown in figure 3. 

With the advent of short pulsed lasers, investigators were able to perfonn time resolved coherent Raman scattering. In contrast to using femtosecond pulses whose spectral widtii provides the two colours needed to produce Raman coherences, discussed above, here we consider pulses having two distinct centre frequencies whose difference drives the coherence. Since the 1970s, picosecond lasers have been employed for this purpose [113. 114], and since the late 1980s femtosecond pulses have also been used [115]. Flere we shall briefly focus on the two-colour femtosecond pulsed experiments since they and the picosecond experiments are very similar in concept. 

The dynamics of fast processes such as electron and energy transfers and vibrational and electronic deexcitations can be probed by using short-pulsed lasers. The experimental developments that have made possible the direct probing of molecular dissociation steps and other ultrafast processes in real time (in the femtosecond time range) have, in a few cases, been extended to the study of surface phenomena. For instance, two-photon photoemission has been used to study the dynamics of electrons at interfaces [ ]. Vibrational relaxation times have also been measured for a number of modes such as the 0-Fl stretching m silica and the C-0 stretching in carbon monoxide adsorbed on transition metals [ ]. Pump-probe laser experiments such as these are difficult, but the field is still in its infancy, and much is expected in this direction m the near fiitiire. 

With the short pulses available from modem lasers, femtosecond time resolution has become possible [7, 71, 72 and 73], Producing accurate time delays between pump and probe pulses on this time scale represents a... 

Figure C3.3.4 shows a schematic diagram of an apparatus tliat can be used to study collisions of tlie type described above [5, 9,12,16]. Donor molecules in a 3 m long collision cell (a cylindrical tube) are excited along tlie axis of tlie cell by a short-pulse excimer laser (typically 25 ns pulse widtli operating at 248 mil), and batli molecules are probed along tliis same axis by an infrared diode laser (wavelengtli in tlie mid-infrared witli continuous light-output...

The timing of the emission is clearly dependent on the system in use. For example, if pumping is relatively slow and stimulated emission is fast, then the emergent beam of laser light will appear as a short pulse (subsequent lasing must await sufficient population inversion). This behavior is... 

For many lasers used in scientific work, the light is emitted in a short pulse lasting only a few nanoseconds, but the pulses can be repeated at very short intervals. Other lasers produce a continuous output of light. 

For stand-alone or hybrid TOF mass spectrometry, the ions examined must all start from some point at the same instant. From this zero time, the ions are accelerated through a short region by applying a short pulse of electric potential of several kilovolts. The acceleration gives the ions velocities that vary in proportion to the square root of their m/z values. 

The pusher electrode must be operated by placing very short pulses of electric potential on it. The short pulses are required to ensure that all the ions are started at the same time along the TOP analyzer, since the latter must time the flights of the ions very accurately in order to measure m/z values. 

From the Heisenberg uncertainty principle as stated in Equation (1.16) estimate, in cm and Hz, the wavenumber and frequency spread of pulsed radiation with a pulse length of 30 fs, typical of a very short pulse from a visible laser, and of 6 ps, typical of pulsed radiofrequency radiation used in a pulsed Fourier transform NMR experiment. 

In 1991 a remarkable discovery was made, accidentally, with a Tp -sapphire laser pumped with an Ar+ laser. Whereas we would expect this to result in CW laser action, when a sharp jolt was given to the table supporting the laser, mode locking (Section 9.1.5) occurred. This is known as self-locking of modes, and we shall not discuss further the reasons for this and how it can be controlled. One very important property of the resulting pulses is that they are very short. Pulse widths of a few tens of femtoseconds can be produced routinely and with high pulse-to-pulse stability. Further modification to the laser can... 

J.S. Wark, R.R. Whitlock, A. Hauer, J.E. Swain, and P.J. Solone, Short-Pulse X-Ray Diffraction from Laser-Shocked Crystals, in Shock Waves in Condensed Matter 1987 (edited by S.C. Schmidt and N.C. Holmes), Amsterdam, 1988, pp. 781-786, Elsevier Science. 

In Laser Ionization Mass Spectrometry (LIMS, also LAMMA, LAMMS, and LIMA), a vacuum-compatible solid sample is irradiated with short pulses ("10 ns) of ultraviolet laser light. The laser pulse vaporizes a microvolume of material, and a fraction of the vaporized species are ionized and accelerated into a time-of-flight mass spectrometer which measures the signal intensity of the mass-separated ions. The instrument acquires a complete mass spectrum, typically covering the range 0— 250 atomic mass units (amu), with each laser pulse. A survey analysis of the material is performed in this way. The relative intensities of the signals can be converted to concentrations with the use of appropriate standards, and quantitative or semi-quantitative analyses are possible with the use of such standards. 

---