SPIE - Education Solid-State Laser Design for Environmental Stability SC1255

Laser misalignment is a familiar phenomenon. Anyone who has endeavoured to build a laser resonator soon discovers the alignment precision required and that there can be a need for regular realignment to combat degrading performance. Lasers are sensitive to their environment through thermal, mechanical and atmospheric interactions and it is these interactions that cause laser performance to degrade if they are not given due consideration. This becomes ever more important as laser system sizes are reduced and they are taken from the laboratory and out into the field. This course will describe the mechanisms by which temperature, vibration, shock, humidity, contamination and vacuum interact with a solid-state laser and will present design approaches that mitigate these effects. If your laser is to be incorporated into a portable device, attached to a moving vehicle, used in defense applications, sent into space, or if your laser must survive being shipped to a customer and work reliably once it arrives, then you will benefit from this course.