(734) 487-8794
Email:
phy_thomsen@online.emich.edu
The gigawatt glass laser system
The experimental laser physics laboratory houses experiments studying laser-matter interactions. Many of these experiments involve photothermal techniques in which information about the absorption of a material is obtained by detecting the change in the sample due to absorption-caused local heating. These techniques can be used to locate and study in detail the defects which give rise to absoprtion in high quality optical materials. During the 1997-1998 academic year, the lab has been funded primarily through Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the State of Michigan Research Excellence Fund.
The lab uses an extensive range of lasers including:
Picture
1: The enclosed table in the center has one of the two
photothermal set-ups. It is generally used to measure the absorption
of
high quality, weakly absorbing optical materials.
Picture
2: The two enclosed tables are where the lab's two
photothermal experiments are housed. The table further back includes
a
YAG laser. The table on the right of the picture holds
the Argon Ion
laser, the Ti-Sapphire laser and the Krypton Ion Laser.
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