CO₂ Lab Equipment

CO₂ Laser having the diodes changed

The CO2 lab is equipped with a PRF-150 single longitudinal mode CO₂ laser. The wavelength is tunable over a small range around 10um by a cavity grating and measured using a slit imaging CO₂ spectrometer. By use of a Tl₃AsSe₃ 2nd harmonic crystal the wavelength can be tuned around 5um.

A spatial TEM₀₀ mode is achieved by aligning the output coupler and closing down an intracavity iris. The beam profile is imaged using a Spiricon pyroelectric camera.

The temporal profile is measured with a Gold-doped Germanium detector cooled by liquid nitrogen. The temporal profile has been measured to be ~180ns FWHM.

Pyroelectric detectors are used as signal, reference, and trigger. These detectors are fed into the DAQ (data acquisition system) via double-shielded BNC co-axial cables. The DAQ is also used to control stepping motors in the experiments.

A Helium cryostat (10K) or a nitrogen cryostat (77K) is used to cool the samples and allow measurement of optical properties at different temperatures