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SUBSCRIPTIONS & PRICING
GENERAL INFORMATION
chapter 1.5, Lasers
Table of Contents
- 1.5. Lasers
Excerpt
This module is an in-depth explanation of lasers as they apply to the larger field of optics and photonics. Anyone going through this module should have already completed Modules 1.1–1.4 and have a good working knowledge of algebra, exponents, and logarithms. Lasers are devices that amplify or increase the intensity of light to produce a highly directional, high-intensity beam that typically has a very pure frequency or wavelength. They come in sizes ranging from approximately one-tenth the diameter of a human hair to that of a very large building. Lasers produce powers ranging from nanowatts to a billion trillion watts for very short bursts. They produce wavelengths or frequencies ranging from the microwave region and infrared to the visible, ultraviolet, vacuum ultraviolet, and into the soft-X-ray spectral regions. They generate the shortest bursts of light that man has yet produced, or approximately five million-billionths of a second. They are clearly devices of tremendous power with myriad applications.
©2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
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