SPIE - Education How Lasers Work SC366

Lasers are becoming increasingly important in our high-technology environment. Many technicians and engineers who sell, install, operate, and maintain them have limited training in the field of electro-optics. The result can be less efficient usage of these important tools. This five part series seeks to rectify that problem by presenting the fundamental operating principles of lasers in an intuitive, non-mathematical manner. Part 3 of this series addresses how lasers work, covering such topics as: spontaneous emission, stimulated emission, laser pumping mechanisms, resonators, intracavity dynamics, longitudinal modes of a resonator, transverse modes and Gaussian Beams. Lasers are becoming increasingly important in our high-technology environment. Many technicians and engineers who sell, install, operate, and maintain them have limited training in the field of electro-optics. The result can be less efficient usage of these important tools. This five part series seeks to rectify that problem by presenting the fundamental operating principles of lasers in an intuitive, non-mathematical manner. Part 3 of this series addresses how lasers work, covering such topics as: spontaneous emission, stimulated emission, laser pumping mechanisms, resonators, intracavity dynamics, longitudinal modes of a resonator, transverse modes and Gaussian Beams.