Tunable Laser Applications

F.J. Duarte

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498788144
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Biotechnology in Medicine

Broadly tunable lasers continue to have a tremendous impact in many and diverse fields of science and technology. From a renaissance in laser spectroscopy to Bose-Einstein condensation, the one nexus is the tunable laser. Tunable Laser Applications describes the physics and architectures of widely applied tunable laser sources. Fully updated and ex

Chapter 1

Introduction

F. J. Duarte

1.1 Introduction

The ability to yield tunable coherent radiation enhances the applicability of a given laser substantially. Indeed, tunable lasers are among the most studied and successful lasers known today. For instance, the first broadly tunable laser, the organic dye laser, introduced circa 1966 [1–4], has enjoyed a significant amount of attention directed toward the study of its inherent physical properties and technology [5–12]. At the same time, these organic lasers have had a profound impact on a plethora of fields, including physics, spectroscopy, laser isotope separation, medicine, and astronomy [6,13–16].

Today, the field of broadly tunable lasers includes an array of different lasers, which have markedly extended the applicability domain of lasers. In addition to the broadly tunable organic dye lasers, there are broadly tunable semiconductor lasers, optical parametric oscillators (OPOs), tunable fiber lasers, tunable quantum cascade lasers, and free electron lasers (FELs). Also, at this stage, it should be realized that in addition to the class of broadly tunable lasers, there is an additional group of discretely tunable or line-tunable lasers. This latter class of laser, besides being able to shift emission frequency from transition to transition, can also be fine-tuned within the emission spectrum of a given transition.

In Table 1.1, Table 1.2, Table 1.3, Table 1.4, and Table 1.5, basic tuning ranges and energetic properties of tunable sources of coherent radiation are provided to facilitate rapid familiarity with the emission characteristics offered by these sources.

Table 1.1

Wavelength Range of Broadly Tunable Coherent Sources in the Pulsed Re...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Editor
• Contributors
• Chapter 1 - Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Spectroscopic Applications of Tunable Optical Parametric Oscillators
• Chapter 3 - Solid-State Organic Dye Lasers
• Chapter 4 - Organic Dye-Doped Polymer-Nanoparticle Tunable Lasers
• Chapter 5 - Broadly Tunable External-Cavity Semiconductor Lasers
• Chapter 6 - Tunable Fiber Lasers
• Chapter 7 - Fiber Laser Overview and Medical Applications
• Chapter 8 - Medical Applications of Organic Dye Lasers
• Chapter 9 - Tunable Laser Microscopy
• Chapter 10 - Interferometric Imaging
• Chapter 11 - Tunable Laser Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation
• Chapter 12 - Coherent Electrically Excited Organic Semiconductors
• Chapter 13 - Multiple-Prism Arrays and Multiple-Prism Beam Expanders: Laser Optics and Scientific Applications
• Chapter 14 - Optical Quantities and Conversions of Units