1. Undergraduate Laser Laboratory at SJSU Ken Wharton

2. SJSU Physics Department 4 of 14 full-time faculty members with laser/optics research background Houses “Institute for Modern Optics” (contact rdbahuguna@aim.com for more info)rdbahuguna@aim.com Located in the heart of Silicon Valley Instead of a typical “Advanced Laboratory”, our department instead offers an optics laboratory and a laser laboratory for our upper-division majors.

3. Laser Laboratory: Overview 4 optical tables; 8 students/section 4 hours/week (2 units) No write-up time in class The first few labs are identical for all students. Then the students rotate through two sets of four labs.

4. Introductory “Experiments” Labs 1 & 2 (same for all students): –Laser and Electrical Safety –Mounts/hardware (built from scratch each week) –Optics handling/cleaning –Beam pointing + centering (HeNe laser) –Power measurements (HeNe laser) –ND Filters/Attenuation (Only actual experiment) –Scientific Writing Techniques Need 4 sets of everything in these labs. (Optical Tables, ND Filters, power meters, HeNe lasers, mirrors, hardware...)

5. Primary Experiments Align HeNe cavity; current vs. power (*) Polarization Lab ( /2, /4 plates, Pockels cell) CCD Lab, Gaussian Beam Propagation Photodetector response time (chopped HeNe) He-Ne Beam Amplification / Saturation Intensity (*) CO 2 laser (homemade system) (*) Argon-Ion laser (multi-line, diffraction grating expt.) Interferometry (index of refraction of air) Donated equipment includes CCD camera, optical tables, power supplies, HeNes, Optics, Hardware...

6. HeNe Discharge Tube 1st experiment: Use reference HeNe to align mirrors, optimize power output, plot discharge current vs. power. 2nd experiment: Increasing input power lowers gain (from ~15% to ~5%) allowing estimation of saturation intensity for HeNe.

7. CO 2 Laser Experiment One mirror fixed; one mirror adjustable (students align with reference HeNe) Maximum power ~ 500mW Students try different output couplers Beam size estimated from burn spot on paper Students compute gain coefficient, efficiency

8. Final Thoughts Lab complements laser course –Usual reasons: Hands-on learning, etc... –The real world vs. 1st-order laser theory e.g. Gaussian Beam Lab, introduce M 2 ≠1 –Lab experience key for jobs in photonics If interested in more info, please contact me: –Ken Wharton, wharton@science.sjsu.edu Thanks: Sarma Lakkaraju, Kiumars Parvin, Ramen Bahuguna, Jose Garcia