Student Laser Lab
Here's what you can expect in our lab!
The Student Laser Lab was developed with the collaboration of Lukas Germeroth, Janko Umbach, Samuel Blatt, Lasse Nuss, Christian Gerbig, Alexander Gerlach, and Jochen Mikosch. In addition to in-house designs, set-ups from the company LUHS were purchased for some of the experiments; some of these were modified.
A total of five lab experiments, conducted in teams of two students, are designed to provide a hands-on introduction to the fundamentals of lasers—in parallel with or building upon the acquisition of theoretical knowledge, such as that covered in the lecture on “Fundamentals of Laser Physics.”
The time commitment is approximately one afternoon per experiment, plus preparation and evaluation. Each experiment comes with a 5–8-page instruction manual. The dates can be chosen freely in consultation with the supervisors. Students are required to give a short presentation (15 minutes plus questions) on one of the experiments.
Elective course for the Bachelor's program in Physics and Nanostructure Sciences:
Credits: 4
Room: 0411 in AVZ III
Contact: Alexander Gerlach, Jochen Mikosch
Advisors: Lukas Germeroth, Alexander Gerlach
Course Language: Currently, the course is only available in German.
Our Experiments
• Components and Assembly of a (Helium-Neon) Laser
• Stability Conditions for a Confocal Resonator
• Transverse and Longitudinal Modes
• Measurement of the Speed of Light Using Mode Beating
• Dyes as laser-active media
• Nonlinear light amplification by stimulated emission
• Grating stabilization of frequency and tuning range
• Distribution of pulse energies
• Fiber as a laser-active medium
• Laser dynamics: latency, spiking, and relaxation oscillations
• Lifetime of the inversion and of the photons in the resonator
• Ring resonator
• Semiconductor diodes as laser-active media
• Characteristics and efficiency of a red and a blue laser diode
• Tuning a laser diode via injection current and temperature
• Measurement of M2 beam quality
• Solids as laser-active media
• Absorption/emission in a Pr:YLF crystal, lifetime of excited states
• Components and assembly of a (solid-state) laser
• Determination of the coherence length using external Fabry-Perot interferometers
• Optimizing the optical pumping of an Nd:YAG solid-state crystal
• Frequency doubling in the resonator
• Active and passive Q-switching
• Determining pulse durations and pulse energies
A prerequisite for completing the laser lab is the ability to safely operate various measuring instruments, particularly an oscilloscope and a spectrum analyzer. Therefore, in this preliminary experiment, you will learn through hands-on practice how to measure signals using an oscilloscope or a spectrum analyzer. The focus here is on: setting the correct time resolution and trigger, understanding sampling and aliasing, and performing basic frequency-domain measurements.