The scientific community is often faced with the requirement of testing, validating, or merely qualifying several laser sources planned for a particular project.. Such testing is needed to: Read more >

I am a fifth year graduate student, working in the Saykally group at the University of California Berkeley. My research focuses on investigating air/water interfaces using second harmonic generation, a surface selective nonlinear optical technique. Read more >

Want to know how and why he profiles his laser systems? Want to find out the trick he uses to make laser alignment a snap? I asked him a few questions about his method and motivation. Read more >

Lasers used in labs must be measured. However, there are usually many constraints, even besides the obvious one (money): Read more >

To begin we would probably specify its color or, more accurately, its spectral distribution. We would also need to describe its spatial distribution, i.e. the intensity versus position in a cross section of the beam. But light, of course, is a vector phenomenon so our characterization would also need to include the direction of the electric and magnetic fields (polarization). Read more >

Whether you're a lab researcher or an industrial worker, there are several parameters you might need to calculate, such as power density or ideal focus spot size. We've recently added a few calculators to our website. I hope these calculators make your work just a little bit easier. We have five laser optics calculators (so far): Read more >